Compass Points
by Durandall
Summary: Ranma must rescue Akane from an enemy he never thought he'd have to face.
1. Act I: Heart and Soul

Heart and Soul  
  
Compass Points: Act I  
  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction.  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi owns the paints, I use my own easel.  
  
  
Nabiki shuddered against the cold, pulling her coat about her  
tighter. The chill wind whipped around her, sending the trailing  
straps from her climbing gear flapping around. She stumbled for a  
moment, as one half-numbed hand slipped, and she dropped her  
mattock.  
  
Shivering, she slid her mitten back on, turning to look down the  
slope behind her. The hood of her parka obscured her field of  
vision, as the thick brown strands of the lining fluttered in the  
wind.  
  
All around was an expanse of featureless white, broken only in the  
distance by occasional rocks, and further away, distant brown  
smudges. Only last week those smudges had been where she had griped  
to Ranma and Tofu about the heat. Ranma had simply stared into her  
eyes impassively, not showing any reaction, while Tofu shrugged and  
bore it.  
  
Once her mitten was back on, and warmth began to seep back into her  
hand, she glanced back up the slope they were traversing. A giant  
slab of white snow on the side of the mountain. It wasn't much of a  
mountain, really. More like a big hill.  
  
The slope wasn't steep, but it was a good distance to the point  
Ranma had declared that he was going to, and the Tendo girl found  
herself wishing she had studied the martial arts more closely. Or at  
least practiced more than just flexibility.  
  
She paused for a moment, waiting for Tofu to notice her. After a  
moment he did, and turned around slowly. His own form was wrapped in  
dark, thick woolens, making him look like a native guide. Nabiki  
almost laughed at the image of Tofu as a sherpa, herself the  
explorer... but the humor of the situation drained quickly when  
Ranma stepped out from behind Tofu, his face calm and composed.  
  
Nabiki shivered again, partially from the air, but mostly because of  
Ranma. He wore nothing more than his standard Chinese clothing,  
while a subtle lambent aura seeped from beneath the faded silk. His  
blue eyes were hardened, cerulean spheres of ice that lit upon  
Nabiki briefly, turned to Tofu, then looked away again. He gazed up  
towards the peak of the mountain, then shook his head.  
  
Tofu turned to look at Ranma, warily stepping back. The pigtailed  
boy sighed, seemingly untouched by the frigid surroundings. "She's  
near. We'll rest here. Tomorrow, then." He nodded decisively, then  
sank to the lotus position. "You two require sleep."  
  
Nabiki shuddered, then shrugged off her pack, eager to have the tent  
set up, and the chance to huddle for warmth. "Thank the kami..." For  
heat, she would have been willing to curl up with Kuno, at this  
point.  
  
Tofu removed his own pack, rummaged around for a bit, then removed  
his mittens, revealing thin gloves beneath. His eyes met Nabiki's  
for a moment, and she saw a hint of sadness, and loss in them,  
before he turned back to the task of setting up the tent. His voice  
carried through the wind that tore at them, trying to tear the words  
away. "Let's just hurry. I know I can hardly wait to get warm  
again."  
  
Chastising herself for her lapse in attention, Nabiki approached,  
and held down the tent while Tofu staked it in place. "Right.  
Sorry." The wind had stilled suddenly, and she opened her mouth to  
ask about it, but Tofu interrupted her with a shake of his head. She  
paled, and nodded, shooting a glance towards where Ranma meditated  
in the snow.  
  
Loose flakes swirled about in the wind that seemed not to touch the  
pair of climbers, gradually spiraling towards Ranma, then flitting  
away. Tofu studiously avoided looking at Ranma, though Nabiki shot  
the occasional peek towards him nervously, noting that outside of a  
wide circle surrounding Ranma, crystals of ice still whipped about  
in frenzied gusts.  
  
Once the tent was erected, Tofu held it open while Nabiki scrambled  
in, joining her after only a moment of hesitation. Nabiki sealed the  
tent after Tofu, then shrugged out of her outer clothing and  
squirmed her way into her sleeping bag. Tofu smiled faintly, then  
encased himself in his own protective layer of warmth. "Better,  
Nabiki?"  
  
Nabiki shivered again at the memories. After a moment, she opened  
her eyes, and turned towards Tofu. "Is... what's going to happen?"  
  
Tofu frowned, his face betraying none of the emotion it had in  
Ranma's presence. "I don't know, Nabiki. I'm worried, and... I'm  
afraid. I'll tell you that much. Tomorrow, we'll see if he can..."  
He trailed off, turning to face the roof of the tent moodily.  
  
Nabiki winced, then muffled a whimper. "He... he's going to save  
her, right?" There was no reason to name him. "He's always saved her  
before, right?" There was no reason to name her, either.  
  
Tofu sighed, closing his eyes. "I hope so, Nabiki." But they were  
words Nabiki didn't want to hear, then. The thought of losing her  
sister sent a hot pain shooting through her gut. "I hope so."  
  
***  
  
Ranma had become detached, seeming indifferent once the entire  
ordeal had begun. He spent more and more time in the soul of ice,  
and less time being himself. He explained, in his cold,  
dispassionate way, that he had to do it. He needed to be ready.  
  
The others had finally come to accept it, knowing they couldn't  
quite understand what drove him... or _her_ for that matter.  
  
***  
  
Nabiki sighed against the light that woke her, illuminating one wall  
of the tent, and alerting her that the time of warmth and comfort  
was at an end for the moment. Tofu was lying near her, staring at  
the ceiling silently.  
  
She licked her lips nervously, then sighed. "Morning, Tofu."  
  
He shot a glance towards her, expression grave, then sat up.  
"Morning indeed... today..." He frowned, trailing off, then shook  
his head. "We'd better eat, and hurry on our way."  
  
Nabiki nodded. "Ranma might get impatient."  
  
Tofu shook his head, rummaging though a bag. "I doubt he's got the  
capacity at this point."  
  
Nabiki lowered her head and sighed. "Right. Do you think he's  
hungry?"  
  
The older man looked up and stared at her for a moment, seeming  
surprised, then shrugged, turning back to the bag he was rifling  
through. "I doubt it."  
  
The middle Tendo sister frowned. "Isn't it traditional to leave them  
offerings?"  
  
"Ranma's neither dead, nor a kami." Tofu's tone seemed terse, and  
Nabiki wisely kept her tongue in check until their trail rations  
were finished.  
  
Once they were done, she took a last piece of hard biscuit out,  
dressed, and waited for Tofu.  
  
The man re-packed everything with expertise, and in short order, re-  
dressed. The two took a few quick, shallow breaths, bracing  
themselves for the biting cold that would be waiting them outside.  
  
It wasn't enough.  
  
The chill of the afternoon before was nothing compared to the  
blinding, near-arctic air that assaulted them when they exited the  
tent. A thin layer of ice crusted the exterior of the tent, despite  
the warmth it had held inside.  
  
Tofu eyed it for a moment, then shook his head and decided to leave  
it. One way or another, they wouldn't need to take it with them.  
  
Nabiki drew in a sharp breath, coughing as the freezing air invaded  
her lungs, then gasped, provoking another coughing fit.  
  
Tofu raised his mattock defensively, and spun, then relaxed. "Calm  
down, Nabiki. It's just Ranma."  
  
Nabiki shivered, then nodded decisively. Slipping off her mitten,  
she pulled the biscuit out of a pocket, and approached Ranma.  
  
The pigtailed martial artist was sitting on a low pedestal carved  
out of compressed snow. Ice had formed near him, thin, serpent-like  
strands writhing in a ring about him, then ascending in a spiral.  
  
He stared at a blue column of ice that jutted through the frozen  
strands around him contemplatively. Nabiki swallowed, and as Ranma  
shot a glance towards her, the formations around Ranma shivered  
once, then collapsed into a circle of shards. Nabiki's hand trembled  
as she held out the biscuit. "You should eat something, Ranma. She  
wouldn't want..." She trailed off, as Ranma's features became  
pained, and a wave of fatigue washed across his face.  
  
The pigtailed boy shivered, then smiled faintly. "I'm not hungry  
now, Nabiki. But thank you." He shuddered again in the frigid  
climate, then relaxed, the emotion draining from him again, and with  
it, the touch of the environment faded.  
  
Tofu shouldered his pack, motioning Nabiki to do the same. She did  
so silently, resisting the urge to shed tears. They were both alive,  
still. There was a chance Ranma could save her... and himself...  
  
***  
  
The devastation around Phoenix Mountain was frightening, when Kiima  
relayed the words to Nabiki. The Gekkaja had been taken as a symbol  
of power, and only would be returned if someone brought the Kinjakan  
to a place that... 'Ranma would know.'  
  
And he had, though Nabiki couldn't understand how. Nabiki took a  
moment to study the boy. He hadn't cried in weeks, seeming more  
removed and detached from the outside world than ever.  
  
Kiima's eyes had a hard edge, capturing Nabiki's own eyes, as she  
surveyed the shattered and crumbling stone parapets that made up  
their home. The fact that no lives were lost was little consolation  
to the guards who had lost their wings to frostbite.  
  
***  
  
The trio marched towards a point below the summit, Nabiki and Tofu  
trudging across the hard-packed snow, and Ranma seeming to drift  
more than walk. His feet left no marks, though the snow where he  
passed hardened enough to support both Nabiki and Tofu. They made no  
attempt to speak to each other, until they reached a shallow, bowl-  
shaped depression that appeared to be blasted into the side of the  
slope.  
  
Ranma nodded once to himself, then turned towards Tofu and Nabiki.  
"It's time. You two will be in danger. Give me the tool, and observe  
from a safe distance." He pointed towards a nearby outcropping of  
stone.  
  
Tofu twitched slightly, then removed a short staff-like object from  
his pack. After a moment of hesitation, Nabiki removed a heavy iron  
ring with odd decorative flanges from her own pack. The pair eyed  
Ranma uneasily, then set the pieces on the ground and backed away.  
  
The older man cocked his head to one side. "So you want us to  
watch?"  
  
Ranma's face remained indifferent as he gathered up the ring and the  
staff. "No. But you wish to do so anyway."  
  
Nabiki shivered, wiping at her eyes with her mittens. "Ranma... take  
care of yourself. We... I want you to come back."  
  
His face remained unchanging, as he tossed the ring into the air,  
then caught it on the end of the staff. "The tool will need to be  
returned..." He leveled the ring-capped staff at Tofu. "You must  
retrieve this tool at all costs. Otherwise, all is for naught. I go  
now. Take cover over there. Do not forget, Tofu. The tool must be  
retrieved." Ranma's ice-hard eyes bored into the doctor's, as Tofu  
nodded nervously.  
  
The man licked his lips. "The... Saffron would never forgive us if  
we lost the Kinjakan. I'll be certain to take it back. What  
about..."  
  
Ranma shook his head, turning away. "The Gekkaja is in her hands. If  
it can be retrieved... Simply remember, this tool _must_ be  
retrieved at all costs."  
  
Tofu nodded again, then scurried to the rock that Ranma had  
indicated they should hide behind. If Ranma was stressing something  
when he was that deep in the soul of ice, then Tofu knew it was  
damnably important.  
  
Nabiki knew by other signs. Ranma never spoke that formally. That he  
was now meant...  
  
***  
  
She vanished, leaving nothing behind but a patch of ice, and a room  
so frozen that the walls had cracked when touched, and caused Soun's  
fingers to become frostbitten.  
  
Ranma had been broken, blaming himself endlessly, and seemed to be  
able to do little more than curse his foolishness. Nabiki had  
tracked her, then met up with Tofu after discovering just what had  
happened.  
  
A search for power, for strength... an equality that a young man had  
denied her, despite his well-meaning. Two people agreed to help her  
in her search for discipline and strength, each unaware of the  
other's presence.  
  
Originally a quest for self-discipline... one that had failed after  
being given too much power to resist so soon.  
  
And the heart of ice was too dangerous to be learned so quickly,  
without the proper self-control. She never would have learned it had  
Tofu or Cologne been aware of the other's teachings, but as things  
went...  
  
That was the beginning of Ranma's change, too, since he knew there  
was only one way to bring Akane out of it.  
  
He had to go in after her.  
  
***  
  
Ranma strode purposefully into the center of the depression, feeling  
more than seeing the force at its center.  
  
Easily four hundred feet across, the bowl sloped against the  
curvature of the hillside, interrupted only by a presence at the  
center. Ranma tightened his grip on the tool he held, then froze.  
After a moment, responding to some unknowable sense, he resumed his  
walk towards a swirling white cloud in the center of the depression.  
  
The chill mists parted around him, sending writhing tendrils of sub-  
zero air near him, which shied away from the Kinjakan. He frowned,  
seeing the form revealed at the storm's center.  
  
He nodded to her once, respectfully. "Akane."  
  
***  
  
The change in her was surprisingly subtle, and for a moment, she  
seemed to be gaining the control that she sought... But it wasn't to  
be.  
  
There was simply too much power to resist the temptation.  
  
One night, it became too much, and her means became her method. She  
didn't know _why_ she had to do what she did... only that she had to  
do it.  
  
Because the heart of ice was controlling her, at that point.  
  
***  
  
The passage of time had changed Akane. It was only a short time, but  
the changes were severe. Ice glittered in her hair, giving her a  
mystical, gleaming quality. Her dark eyes shone with a luminous, icy  
power, while her clothing was nothing more than tattered remnants.  
  
But most dramatic was the aura of intense cold that radiated from  
her, faintly thrumming just beyond the edge of the senses.  
  
She stared at Ranma disinterestedly, the Gekkaja held loosely in one  
hand. "You came." There was no emotion in her voice.  
  
The pigtailed boy nodded curtly, then showed the Kinjakan to her.  
"We will do battle now."  
  
Akane cocked her head to one side, then returned the nod. "It will  
be. The victor will claim both keys. What then?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "I have no interests beyond the battle."  
  
Akane frowned. "You will have power if you win. What else do you  
desire?"  
  
"We are beyond such simple things as desire, aren't we?"  
  
"I believe so. But we must fight. My cause is not complete until we  
do so."  
  
Ranma hefted the Kinjakan once, then lowered it to his side.  
"Understood."  
  
As one, they raised their weapons, Akane's staff bearing a wickedly  
curved scythe-like blade on the end. In one voice, they announced,  
"Kumite."  
  
And the battle was joined.  
  
***  
  
When Cologne had seen Ranma and Akane growing close, she knew that  
her chances of getting Ranma were slim, and the chances of getting  
his cooperation were even less. She had adopted on a different  
method instead... Akane hadn't taken much convincing to be adopted  
into the tribe at that point.  
  
If it hadn't been in the wake of Ranma protecting Akane from another  
fiancee's attack... But Ranma saved her. Had to, really. And Kodachi  
had time to drop the one poisoned bouquet that a bystander had  
caught.  
  
If it were a martial artist, they might have been able to shrug off  
the effects. But Sayuri was not a martial artist. If Akane had been  
better, she could have stopped Kodachi on her own. If Akane had been  
able to avoid Kodachi. If she had been able to take the bouquet  
herself. If.  
  
***  
  
It was brief, and it was brutal.  
  
Ranma met Akane's charge, flinging his weapon away, and leaving  
himself open for her attack.  
  
The Gekkaja hissed, slashing through the air with a faint, keening  
wail, seemingly ready to rend the very sky.  
  
The cruelly sharp edge bit into Ranma's chest, goring him and  
spraying blood across the slender girl wielding the weapon. He  
smiled sadly, then shuddered from the exposure. The pain of the  
steel that punctured him dimmed, as it quickly numbed. "Akane...  
Maybe... simple things like desires are better left intact. Without  
you, I have no desire to live. No meaning..." He closed his eyes and  
slumped forward, shivering.  
  
Inside Akane, something frozen... snapped, and the impassive mask on  
her face slipped, revealing a frightened young girl. "R... Ranma?  
What's going on here?"  
  
Her eyes widened, and she grabbed onto him, pulling the Gekkaja free  
and tossing it away. "Ranma! Are you okay?"  
  
He raised his head, hard ice in his eyes. "Such is the way of  
folly." Akane recoiled instinctively, but not quickly enough.  
  
With that, coldness enveloped the pair, freezing them in a near  
embrace. Before Akane succumbed to the freezing grip completely, she  
saw the light of warmth in Ranma's eyes. Ice began to form around  
them, giant crystals stabbing into the air about them, pushing snow  
away, and draining what little moisture that wasn't already frozen.  
Mere centimeters separated the pair, encased as they were.  
  
Tofu charged towards the slowly enlarging block of ice, gathering  
the Kinjakan before the structure claimed it, then running away as  
the heat from the staff began to melt the snow near him.  
  
In defiance of nature, the frozen sludge drifted upwards, then froze  
once more as part of the crystal that enveloped the young lovers.  
  
Tofu ran, and Nabiki joined him shortly. After the ache in her legs  
became too much, she slipped, and fell down. The slick ice that  
Ranma had traversed gave her no purchase, and she flailed about with  
her mattock for a moment before simply letting the slide take her.  
Tofu saw Nabiki pass him, then flopped onto his chest, and slid next  
to her, quickly losing the distance that they had struggled to  
ascend in the past days.  
  
On the hillside above them, a faint white cloud formed, even as a  
deep rumbling noise was heard.  
  
***  
  
To be frozen instantly... she had lost contact with her body, but  
could still see out of her eyes... and Ranma's met hers. Despite his  
betrayal, she felt the love in his gaze, and knew that what he had  
done... had to be done. Dead in body, but together in spirit.  
  
She knew that she would be able to find her center, her peace... and  
control here. If only the price hadn't been so great...  
  
-------  
Author's notes:  
  
Once, when I first started writing, I promised myself I would never  
write anything dark.  
  
I guess I broke that promise, but I had woken up three nights in a  
row from the same dream. I suppose I cannot deny my muse. I suspect  
that this was largely inspired by Nanashi's "Soul of Ice: deus ex  
machina". It's an excellent and thought provoking read.  
  
This is the first time I wrote something that well and truly felt  
like it _needed_ to be written...  
  
C&C to brian@azurite.org  
  
-- 2/9/01  
  
Finally came back and finished re-writing awkward parts... Added  
some dialogue, as was suggested to me... but... I... I think I'm  
happy with this, and am going to call it final unless someone finds  
another error.  
  
-- 2/24/01  
  
Thanks to all who C&C'ed/Preread for me!  
  
Mad-Hamlet  
Nanashi  
Ginrai  
Allyn Yonge 


	2. Earth and Sky -- Twilight

Earth and Sky -- Twilight  
  
A 'Compass Points' Side-Story  
  
And a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
----------------------------  
  
[Predawn]  
  
***  
  
Legend speaks to us of Shen-Lung, the great dragon that  
supports the palace of the gods in the heavens.  
  
***  
  
His eyes glowed. He was guessing about that.  
  
He couldn't see his eyes himself, but people were shying  
away more than normal.  
  
The thing of it was... he couldn't quite decide how that  
should make him feel.  
  
***  
  
Shen-lung was the greatest of the dragons, and his powers  
were nearly as great as the gods' were.  
  
***  
  
She worked the surface before her slowly, scraping it clean,  
though her thoughts were elsewhere.  
  
Her love... was gone. As Nabiki told it, frozen to death  
along with... her.  
  
She paused, staring at her reflection for a moment. What  
should she feel? If he had abandoned her and lived, then it would be  
anger... but he loved deeply enough to throw his life away for...  
her.  
  
***  
  
At the Wheel of the Ages turned, Man changed, no longer  
believing in the fey as they once had.  
  
***  
  
He wondered, for a moment, if his shadow were a true  
reflection of who he was.  
  
When he looked, it showed the outline of a person... an  
outline most were loathe to allow to fall across their paths.  
  
But his reflection in pools spoke of something else.  
  
***  
  
Disbelief in the fey changed them... warped them... and  
slowly, unmade them.  
  
***  
  
She mused idly, toying with a sharp implement of many uses.  
  
For cutting flesh, of course.  
  
But animal, or vegetable, or... her own?  
  
***  
  
[Sunrise]  
  
Ryu glanced about him, ignoring the dragon-shadow that  
trailed him, moving against the sun rather than with it. Something  
that he would learn to live with, he decided. Not something to worry  
about. Now, at any rate.  
  
He frowned, wondering where he would go next. He could feel  
himself... changing... as time passed. He wasn't certain how, or  
even why... but he could feel more.  
  
He _felt_ his steps on the Earth, not just in his own feet,  
but in the soil itself. "Hmm..." he mused, wondering. Hunger no  
longer touched him as it had, unless he wanted it to. But he longed  
to feel that, sometimes. "Food," he murmured, heading back towards  
the city. Perhaps a time to meet with old acquaintances.  
  
***  
  
"And then what happened to the dragon, Daddy?"  
  
"Well, as I remember it, the dragon that the princess so  
loved perished... he fell to the ice, and could struggle no more."  
  
"And the princess?"  
  
"Ah, there's another story..."  
  
***  
  
She cocked her head to one side, offering the same smile she  
always did for her customers. That he felt more... off... than the  
normal customer meant nothing to her. Her own 'otherness' was  
obvious -- all of them felt it. Closeness to Ranma, perhaps? Or  
perhaps it was just the place, and Ranma was another victim.  
  
He smiled genially, studying her grill more than her. "You  
take good care of this," he said, gesturing.  
  
She raised an eyebrow at that. "I do," she admitted.  
"You're... 'Gifted'?"  
  
***  
  
"But what's the story?"  
  
"Well, then the princess met another dragon, and this one  
was much quieter, and still. Not the rushing, raging torrent that  
her first was, but a strong, steady presence."  
  
"What's a torrent?"  
  
"An uncontrolled storm. And the first dragon loosed his  
might and perished because of it."  
  
***  
  
He frowned. "Gifted? What do you mean?"  
  
She waved dismissively. "It's mostly something they don't  
like to talk about, but sometimes... people are starting to change.  
You know. Develop powers and stuff." She pursed her lips  
thoughtfully. "I have a friend who can see with his eyes closed.  
Things like that?"  
  
He nodded slowly. "I suppose. I don't know what it is...  
just that... I can hear things. Metal, earth... you know?" She  
shrugged, handing him a plate, burdened with its fresh meal. "For  
example," he said, taking a bite of the okonomiyaki, "I can tell  
that you no longer cook with the same passion you once did."  
  
***  
  
"And what was the new dragon like?"  
  
"He was just as much a jackass as the first one."  
  
"What?"  
  
"He annoyed the princess to no end, because he was simply  
too calm, too... placid."  
  
***  
  
Ryu snatched the flung spatula out of the air almost  
absently, the blade missing his head by mere inches. "I'm guessing  
that's a sore spot."  
  
The girl -- woman, truly -- growled at him. "I don't need to  
listen to this! I don't need to listen to _you_!"  
  
"No," he said, agreeably. "You don't. Do you want me to  
leave?"  
  
***  
  
"Did the princess banish the new dragon?"  
  
"No, she decided to be patient, and bear with his  
foolishness."  
  
"And then what happened?"  
  
"What do you suppose happened?"  
  
***  
  
He laughed, not moving in time to avoid being struck over  
the head with a much larger spatula, and get knocked to the floor.  
"Ow!"  
  
She snorted, shaking her head and sheathing the weapon.  
"Jackass," she muttered.  
  
There was a long moment of silence as he lay on the floor.  
"So," she said, finally breaking the stillness. "You going to keep  
talking?"  
  
***  
  
"They lived happily ever after?"  
  
"Um... not right away."  
  
"What happened, Daddy?"  
  
"Ah... let's tell that story later."  
  
***  
  
[Noon]  
  
"So," he said plainly, eating another Okonomiyaki. "This one  
tastes like... curiosity, and good will. I suppose you're getting  
over him?"  
  
She scowled, but nodded after a moment. "I guess."  
  
He grinned, setting the empty plate down. "There you have  
it."  
  
Shaking her head, she leaned back against the counter,  
sighing. "Why do you think we've changed the way we have? I mean...  
I think that you've changed more, but..." she trailed off, cocking  
her head at Ryu curiously.  
  
He shrugged after a moment. "I don't know," he admitted. "I  
feel... like I'm part of something greater. Like parts of me are  
missing, or something." He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know  
why I was given... anything. I just know that I was."  
  
She sighed, frowning petulantly. "Now that's just not fair.  
What was I given?"  
  
"A really nice --" he cut himself off, coloring, and choked  
out, "a really nice sense of humor."  
  
She eyed him skeptically, her eyes narrowing as she reached  
for her spatula. "Oh?" she asked.  
  
"Um... yes."  
  
***  
  
"You come in here all the time. Where do you _live_,  
anyway?"  
  
He looked away for a moment, digging in his pocket for  
change. "Around," he admitted after a moment. "Mostly wherever I can  
find a spot to sleep."  
  
She frowned, wondering at that. "I see," she offered after a  
moment.  
  
He smiled genially, something about him shifting and  
becoming... less noticeable... as a trio of customers walked in.  
  
Ukyou turned towards them, greeting automatically, "Welcome  
to Ucch-- Nabiki! How have you been?"  
  
The brown-haired woman brushed her hair back, her young  
daughter asleep and nestled in her arms. "Pretty good, Ukyou. How  
has everything been going for you?"  
  
Ukyo's smile widened, turning more sincere. "Fine, fine.  
Just talking with Ryu-chan. Who's the kid?"  
  
Nabiki flushed, handing the sleeping girl to her husband.  
Tofu accepted the child, taking a seat near Ryu. "Well," Nabiki  
explained, twiddling her thumbs. "Um... after... after the..." Her  
flush and smile faded. "Tofu and I... Ukyou, meet our daughter,  
Ranko."  
  
Ukyou blinked in shock, her mouth falling open. "You..." she  
managed after a moment, staring at Tofu incredulously. "And you?"  
  
Nabiki's guilty flush and smile returned. "Um... yes."  
  
***  
  
Ryu dropped his guise of subtlety, watching the departing  
trio. Ukyou sighed, shaking her head. "I want a family like that,  
someday."  
  
The man rolled his eyes. "That's _easy_," he said. "You just  
have to find someone, and go for it."  
  
"It's that easy?" she asked, bemused.  
  
"Yep."  
  
***  
  
[Sunset]  
  
Ukyou waited calmly.  
  
War.  
  
It was in the news, it was all people would talk about...  
and it was probably coming to Japan, soon.  
  
It had already killed her business...  
  
Sighing, she took a seat at one of the stools opposite the  
grill. Konatsu had taken his leave earlier, and Ukyou hadn't minded,  
since business was so slow.  
  
Someone plodded in to her restaurant, and she raised an  
eyebrow in response. "Was wondering when you'd come."  
  
Ryu looked pale, nodding. "I... hurt," he offered by way of  
apology.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
He slumped to a seat near her. "They... they wound the  
Earth."  
  
"What?"  
  
He gestured to the small radio that Ukyou had turned off to  
save electricity, and explained, as the radio seemed to tune itself,  
"They are using nuclear weapons."  
  
A burst of static, and then a voice came, confirming his  
words.  
  
***  
  
He opened his eyes, seeing the dim light of the fading sun  
against the ceiling. "The hurt..." he began, his tongue feeling  
thick, almost as though it were trying to keep him from speaking,  
"is lessened..."  
  
Ukyou shifted from her position at his side, laying a cool  
cloth over his forehead. "Hush... just rest, you'll get better."  
  
"Yes..." he said, fading back into sleep. "I will..."  
  
***  
  
Ryu idled, lounging against the far wall of the restaurant,  
still suffering momentary bouts of dizziness.  
  
Ukyou studied him for a long moment, considering. "You know  
what?" she asked.  
  
He glanced towards her. "What's that?"  
  
"I've decided."  
  
He blinked, surprised. "Decided what?"  
  
"To start a family."  
  
"Oh," he said, confused. "That's... good." After a moment,  
he frowned. "With who?"  
  
Rolling her eyes, she looked out at the sky, already  
darkening from the onset of the nuclear winter that the wars had  
promised. "You, jackass."  
  
***  
  
[Twilight]  
  
In a forest north and east of Tokyo, one ravaged by the wars  
opened his eyes, and saw. "Brothers?" he whispered.  
  
***  
  
There simply wasn't enough faith, enough strength... enough  
_need_ for him.  
  
***  
  
The animals of the forest responded to his bidding, as he  
rose, riding an errant gust of wind across the lake that housed a...  
cousin... to him.  
  
***  
  
And in the end, Shen-Lung unmade himself, casting himself  
into four pillars, which would maintain and fulfill his function  
when it was needed. No longer the dragon, he was...  
  
***  
  
"Yes... " he said slowly, as sixteen bright eyes watched him  
fearfully from beneath the water. "You are only my cousin. You are  
not my brother."  
  
***  
  
The King of Cups, of Swords, of Coins, of Staves...  
  
----------------------------  
Author's notes:  
  
Though it's not likely that anyone remembers, this was  
written at Mr. Sommer's request/suggestion. :p  
  
Probably a bit too surreal, but it helps explain some  
elements that are helpful towards understanding act three and four  
of Compass Points. 


	3. Act II: Progeny and Spirit

Progeny and Spirit  
  
Compass Points: Act II  
  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction.  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi owns the paints, the easel is mine.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
[Progeny: Yang]  
  
  
Mommy showed me a photo of Uncle Ranma. She has a big book  
of pictures of Uncle and Auntie. There was a picture of him, sitting  
on some snow.  
  
The picture looked like he wasn't on a field of snow at all.  
It was like he was floating in a field of white, and couldn't see  
the world around him. Mom seemed to get sad just looking at it. I  
didn't know what it was. I asked Mom who the boy in the picture was,  
wearing the funny old-fashioned Chinese clothing.  
  
She made a few faces at that, then said, "That's your Uncle,  
Saotome Ranma. You were named after him, you know."  
  
Which is silly. My name isn't Ranma.  
  
***  
  
I managed to sneak into Mommy's room while Mommy was away,  
and grabbed the scrapbook to peek into it. She didn't seem to like  
me looking at it much as I got older.  
  
I noticed that a lot of people that Mommy and Daddy hung out  
with also knew Uncle Ranma. There was a picture of Ranma standing  
next to some boy carrying a wooden sword, and both of them were  
looking at the camera, though they looked mad. Uncle Ranma was in a  
picture next to Auntie Ukyou, too.  
  
That was funny, but I'd never seen Auntie Ukyou carry that  
big metal spatula around, she normally just used smaller ones. There  
weren't any pictures of Daddy until the very end, which made me  
wonder. Then there was a single picture of Daddy walking next to  
Uncle Ranma in the snow somewhere, but Daddy was all bundled up  
against the cold, and I could just barely see his face behind his  
glasses. Uncle Ranma just walked forward, like he wasn't even  
worried about the cold. That confused me.  
  
There were a few people in the pictures that I had never  
seen before, too. There was a pretty lady with purple hair, hugging  
Uncle Ranma at some point, though he looked confused... There was  
the boy with the wooden sword, and then there was another boy who I  
didn't recognize, holding an umbrella. It looked like he was  
fighting with Uncle, too.  
  
A lot of the pictures were of Mommy's sister -- the one  
Auntie Kasumi told me it was better not to ask about, but Mommy and  
Daddy just got all quiet when I asked them. I think Grandpa  
mentioned her once or twice, her name is Akane. There's more  
pictures, too... there's a girl who looks kind of like Uncle Ranma  
only with red hair... I think she's shorter, but there aren't any  
pictures of her and Uncle Ranma together.  
  
I heard Mommy coming home, so I had to rush and hide the  
scrapbook before she caught me, but at least I got a good look at  
Uncle Ranma... I hope I can meet him some day.  
  
***  
  
Now I'm confused. I'm twelve years old, and my parents are  
still not telling me what happened to Uncle Ranma.  
  
I really want to know, I mean, if he's dead, then I won't  
worry, but... I asked Shinta's parents about Uncle Ranma, because I  
wanted to know more, and I remembered there was a picture of the  
redheaded girl standing next to Shinta's mom. She wants me to call  
her Grandmother, but I don't know her that well.  
  
When I asked her, though, she got all tight-lipped, and  
stared away, looking like she was about to cry. Her husband mumbled  
something about him 'passing on', and Shinta's Mom -- sorry --  
'Grandmother' dragged him into the next room and gave him a tongue-  
lashing.  
  
Shinta whispered to me that he thinks that Ranma is a cousin  
of his, or something, because he heard his father say something  
about a training trip. Then he said something about his father's  
condition. I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but the next  
thing I know, 'Grandmother' Nodoka is chasing a panda across the  
backyard, throwing rocks at it furiously.  
  
After that, we figured we should probably give them some  
space, and ask Mom and Dad if _they_ knew anything.  
  
Mom looked confused, and Dad actually tore himself from his  
research -- something about healing frostbite -- to look at me.  
Something in his eyes said that he wanted to tell me, but Mom cut  
him off, "Tofu-chan, she's not ready yet. When she's older..."  
  
Dad looked away, turning back to his computer without saying  
anything. I really don't get my parents sometimes. It's like there's  
some big conspiracy going around, and they just want to keep me out  
of it 'cause I'm not old enough.  
  
Actually, that's exactly what's going on.  
  
Now I _really_ want to know what's going on. Grandpa Soun  
would know, but I don't know if Auntie Kasumi would let me talk to  
him about it, since I'm positive that it's related to Auntie Akane,  
somehow. Anyway, every time I try, Grandpa Soun goes off on this  
long tirade about how it's my and Shinta's duty to carry on the  
schools, or something. I don't get _that_ at all.  
  
I mean, Shinta? Ew!  
  
***  
  
Mom had some friends over today. It was the purple haired  
lady, and her 'husband.' She's a nice enough lady, but someone  
should tell her that her husband is a girl.  
  
Her name is Shampoo, which Mom says used to be a bad joke.  
Apparently she's some kind of government figure for the Qinghai  
Confederacy and works with Saffron now. I don't remember hearing  
anything about her in the news, but I believed her when she said  
that she knew Saffron personally.  
  
Herb's not very friendly, though she was polite to me. I  
guess she just doesn't like being outside of the Qinghai  
Confederacy.  
  
They're supposed to be special, like Daddy, though. So I  
guess that Daddy is one of them. I wonder if I'm fey, too? Mommy  
says I shouldn't worry...  
  
***  
  
Dad told me what happened to Uncle Ranma tonight. He said  
that, somehow, Ranma was such a good martial artist that he could  
make himself cold -- and he could withstand arctic temperatures  
because of his training.  
  
I was kind of confused, till he showed me a picture from  
another scrapbook, one of Uncle Ranma and Auntie Akane standing next  
to each other at a festival. I guess they were a couple, which makes  
sense, since Shampoo, who I thought was Uncle Ranma's girlfriend,  
wasn't. Dad said it was more complicated than that, but that he'd  
explain it some other time.  
  
Anyway, Dad explained that Ranma knew a technique to make a  
kind of tornado, and that part of it was mastering the Soul of Ice.  
So he chilled his soul and got to be some kind of super-martial-  
artist. Dad showed me another picture, though it was kind of blurry,  
of Uncle Ranma talking with a little boy that looked like Saffron.  
  
I asked him about that, and Dad explained that after the  
Fall, the regions of Gansu and Qinghai were united into a single  
country, more or less under Saffron's rule. Apparently, it was Uncle  
Ranma's doing, because Saffron used to have to stay in his mountain  
and help his people out, but Uncle Ranma managed to fix things so  
that he could leave.  
  
I didn't get that, but I remembered watching one of those  
cheesy military vids when I was in grade school, and seeing Saffron  
gesture, simply annihilating whatever was thrown at him... There was  
another clip of him getting caught in the blast of a patriot  
missile, and emerging unscathed. Mad, but unscathed.  
  
That vid gave me nightmares for a week, and my dad told me  
that Uncle Ranma beat him with his bare hands?  
  
I asked him about it, and he mentioned a pair of magical  
weapons or something. I wasn't sure how much to believe, until he  
explained what happened to Uncle Ranma, and why some people insist  
that he and Auntie Akane aren't dead. Dad knew one of the tricks  
that he said Auntie Akane knew, and he showed it to me -- froze a  
glass of water in the living room with the heater on.  
  
After seeing that... It makes a hell of a lot of sense,  
actually.  
  
Now I know why Dad spends all of his time studying  
hypothermia and frostbite and things like that... I somehow doubt  
that it would be enough, since he said that Uncle Ranma got slashed  
across the chest with a scythe, but... something tells me that I am  
going to see Uncle Ranma some day anyway.  
  
Dad thinks there's a way, so I'm gonna try.  
  
Sixteen years old is about the right time to start thinking  
about what kind of college I want to get into... Mom said that the  
Tendo holdings are enough that I can go to almost any school I want.  
  
***  
  
I was taking a break from studying and watching the  
television earlier today... Japan has apparently decided that fey  
are on equal grounds with the rest of humanity.  
  
I thought that was kind of obvious...  
  
Anyway, this could help a bit, since as far as I can tell,  
Uncle Ranma and Auntie Akane are _certainly_ going to be Fey. If we  
can get them back.  
  
I should be getting back to work...  
  
***  
  
I hate that dream. It's weird, and it seems like it  
shouldn't even be, well, mine.  
  
Something tells me that it's Uncle Ranma and Auntie Akane,  
though. I usually can't sleep after a dream like that, so I check my  
terminal, and see what my projects have pulled up.  
  
The problem is really technical, and honestly, not  
interesting... unless you happen to _want_ to study things like  
this. When you're chilled, your body processes generally slow down.  
Your heart will beat more slowly, and your brain will go into a mode  
that conserves oxygen as much as it can. That's why you can hold  
your breath for up to fifteen minutes, or even longer, if you're in  
really cold water.  
  
Not that I think anyone should actually _try_ it.  
  
Anyway. Being frozen is a lot different from being chilled,  
and I seriously doubt that someone could survive for 19 years and  
still be alive... that way.  
  
My physics professor demonstrated this to us in class. Fruit  
can ripen a little _after_ it's picked, and green bananas turn  
yellow, then brown, and then, well, Mom throws 'em out once they  
start getting spots, actually. Anyway, the teacher took a yellow  
banana, sliced it in half, and stuck a pencil in it.  
  
Then he started gesturing, like it was a hammer. I was kind  
of bored, but curious at the same time. He stuck the banana into a  
small container of liquid nitrogen, then proceeded to hammer a nail  
into a two-by-four with it. That was cool enough, and he did some  
other fun stuff, too, but what really interested me was the banana.  
It was frozen for only a few seconds before it started thawing,  
but...  
  
When it thawed out it was brown.  
  
Turns out that when something living is frozen, the frozen  
cells die.  
  
Uncle Ranma and Auntie Saotome are frozen solid, and thus,  
are medically dead.  
  
When someone has a heart attack, they can have their heart  
restarted with electricity. But they aren't dead when they're  
brought back; their heart has stopped. The cells of the body are  
still alive to _be_ revived.  
  
Now, it would be a simple enough matter to take a few cells  
from the bodies -- Dad disagrees, but I haven't seen where they were  
frozen, yet -- and then clone them. But then, it'd be a clone, and  
he says that that would cause all sorts of trouble. Turns out that  
Uncle Ranma is Auntie Ranma, too. I'm not sure how that works, but  
Grandma Nodoka's husband demonstrated _his_ curse, so I know it  
does. But what does this mean for Ranma and Akane?  
  
Even beyond the fact that their cells are frozen, and thus,  
they are medically, and... for all practical purposes, _dead_...  
They were frozen solid. If we can rejuvenate the cells, somehow,  
then they'll come back... If it's cold _enough_ then we can flash  
thaw them, rejuvenate the cells, then kick-start them with a bit of  
a shock.  
  
I'm not sure how that would work, though. Dad developed a  
working way to rejuvenate frozen skin, but what about their internal  
organs, and most importantly, their brains?  
  
I do have some hope for that, but...  
  
I have a lot of work ahead of me.  
  
***  
  
Well, so far so good. All I need now is permission from the  
New Republic of Xinjiang since Dad says that's where they are. He  
gave me the coordinates... which puts it pretty close to the western  
edge... but I'm expecting some trouble with this. NR Xinjiang  
doesn't usually get along with the Qinghai Confederacy. The NR  
Xinjiang have a problem with Saffron specifically, but according to  
the sat-relays I've seen, Uncle Ranma buried himself underneath a  
structure of solid ice that masses at least twenty thousand kilos.  
There's no way we're going to get to him without their cooperation,  
and since it's pretty far from Qinghai, and any of it's allies, even  
trying is just going to piss them off.  
  
So I've got to get their cooperation. Auntie Ukyou found out  
what I was up to, and Uncle Ryu insisted that they donate, so we've  
got a grant set up.  
  
I feel bad about accepting money from them, but it looks  
like selling okonomiyaki makes more money than I had thought... And  
then she told me that if I bring Uncle Ranma back, it's her early  
wedding gift to him.  
  
That threw me off; no one ever told me they weren't married.  
He must have been pretty close for Mom and Kasumi to insist that I  
call him 'uncle', when he hadn't even married Auntie Akane yet.  
  
Anyway, the research grant got some 'mysterious' donations  
from an 'unknown' and 'unnamable' source. I thanked Shinta for that;  
turns out that his girlfriend's loaded. Still, boy's got guts to be  
dating Tatewaki's daughter, from what Mom's told me about Kuno as a  
child.  
  
The biggest donation came, of course, from myself. I took  
the majority of my shares in Tendo Heavy, and set aside some...  
goods... Pity, really. I suspect most of it will end up going for  
bribes.  
  
Mom said that I should meet with some of the 'old Nerima  
Wrecking Crew' before I go, but I don't know many of them. Whoever  
'Ryouga' is, I haven't seen more than pictures, and the only letter  
I got from him said that he felt the dead should be left that way.  
  
Still, I don't like the idea of going without someone that  
Uncle and Auntie knew. I want them to wake up to familiar faces, if  
I can help it.  
  
I guess I'm stalling, because I'm worried... damn politics.  
Oh well, time for me to go.  
  
Tendo Ranko, signing out... I'll write more when I get back.  
Let's hope!  
  
***  
  
[Spirit: Yin]  
  
  
It is cold... and lonely. There is a nearby presence, but it  
doesn't detract from the loneliness. I can't go to... him.  
  
He sealed me here for a reason, confining my soul to my  
body, while his bled out, freezing around me in a prison.  
  
I wonder about that. I have a lot of time, and wondering is  
all I can do; I have no body.  
  
That's not true. I have a body, but it's dead. I wish I  
hadn't let go of him when I was frozen. But it's so cold... and so  
lonely... and I want to reach out to him, but I can't.  
  
I wish I had a body again... then I could cry. Souls can't  
shed tears...  
  
I miss Ranma.  
  
***  
  
[Progeny: Yin]  
  
  
Mother told me that I can't play with Pei Lin anymore,  
because her father is a radical.  
  
I don't understand that, because when I asked Ji Shiang, he  
told me that a radical was something you did with numbers. He's  
always playing with numbers. He says he wants to be smart and get a  
good job working for the People.  
  
I don't know what he means by that, because when I try and  
be bossy, he tells me to do things myself. I'm a person, so he  
should do what I say, right?  
  
***  
  
Father took me on a trip with him today when he went to  
work. He showed me a big statue that was built a long time ago, just  
after all of NR Xinjiang was free from 'China'. The bottom was  
covered in little tiny names that I could barely read.  
  
He told me they were the names of people who died in the  
Fall, when the 'fey' came into being. We learned about that in class  
last week, so I know what it is, but it makes me sad. Why did so  
many people have to die? The fey must be really bad guys.  
  
***  
  
Syao Sun reminded me that it had been a few days since I  
talked to my mother. I'm spending all my extra time after school  
trying to help Father at his job. He works for the People in a big  
office. I forgot his title, but he said it meant he was in charge of  
moving stuff around the country.  
  
I just move stuff around his office. I think he likes having  
me around, though Syao Sun seems to not like me. I wonder if Mother  
knows that Father kisses Syao Sun when I'm not supposed to be able  
to see.  
  
***  
  
Father told me today that I should start training for the  
Academy soon. I thought about trying some other career first... but  
he's right. And the Academy will get me away from the house.  
  
Ancestors, I sometimes swear that I can see the bloodstains  
from where I found my mother after she discovered Father's affair.  
Bastard. Getting away will be nice.  
  
My teacher told me a while ago that I should try writing  
more professionally if I want to do a good job for the People. That  
means less personal stuff, so I'll try... But later. Tonight, I have  
a date!  
  
Jen Di introduced me to a cute guy, and we're going out. His  
name is Swou Fong, and he's from the Cheng family. He's older, so I  
can probably ask him something about what China was like before the  
Fall, too.  
  
***  
  
Wrote a letter to Jen Di. Tien Liang is going to get a  
letter, too.  
  
Long distance relationships never work, and it's hard enough  
for a woman to get ahead in the People's Republic. I shouldn't think  
such things... I'm sure it's just an oversight that will be  
corrected soon.  
  
I'm going to be posted as an intern next week! The Ministry  
of Foreign Affairs. I wonder what they'll have me do.  
  
***  
  
My supervisor is Don Hai. He seems to like me... but I'm not  
sure about that. He's married.  
  
Mrs. Wang dropped in once to check on him, so I guess he  
won't try anything... He did say that he wanted me to join the  
Ministry once I was done at the Academy. It's not a bad job, and  
it'll keep me away from Father. I like the idea.  
  
***  
  
Nothing interesting today. Hardly anybody wants to send our  
country much mail. Probably trying to deal with their own  
problems...  
  
Father passed away last week. The house was reclaimed for  
the People, since it's too large for just me, and I have an  
apartment here anyway.  
  
Good riddance.  
  
***  
  
A request, today. Turns out that someone from Japan wants  
access to the glorious New Republic of Xinjiang. She claims that her  
reason is because she wants to revive the ice-wraith.  
  
I had to laugh at that, and showed it to Don Hai before I  
dismissed it. He didn't think it was very funny. Apparently, his  
family was caught in its path, and the ice-wraith destroyed what  
meager holdings they had. I can't imagine that it means that much to  
him, since the Fall makes us all equal... roughly... but still.  
  
He said that it bore consideration, but he wanted me to  
recover as much detail as I could about the situation before  
responding. I don't like dealing with... them...  
  
***  
  
I overheard someone from the expedition comment on it. He  
said that it had to be seen to be believed. I have to wonder about  
that. It can't be that impressive... I'll ask Don Hai if I can  
authorize Tac scans... initial recognizance was useless.  
  
Looks like I'm never going to find a chance to find someone  
to date.  
  
***  
  
The Tac-7 reports were inconclusive. I ended up going to the  
site myself. We don't have the tech that Miss Tendo is claiming, and  
we couldn't bring them back... but they are there. Scary, actually.  
  
Thermal scans indicated that the structure was actually  
colder than the air around it... and the structures inside were  
colder still. One of the men touched the ice, which turned out to be  
a mistake.  
  
We removed him, and there was no permanent damage, but the  
temperature of the structure dropped substantially. It was only  
thirty-two below zero, initially. Now it's holding at about fifty-  
two.  
  
This is kind of frightening, when you really think about it.  
This means that, somehow, something in that structure is generating  
cold.  
  
Not too improbable, and an interesting study... but it  
_reacts_ to us. Thermals indicate that the core temperature is  
dropping even more, but only when we get closer.  
  
We managed to get some sonar readings... there are two of  
them. A man and... well, a boy and a girl, really. There's also some  
kind of metal device near them, underneath the ice... but we're not  
sure what it is yet.  
  
Miss Tendo's notes indicate that it's the property of  
Saffron... apparently some crude weapon.  
  
***  
  
Forgot his name, but we broke up. He says I'm too distracted  
by my work.  
  
Well, screw him. The People need devoted servants, not weak  
willed self-centered scum like him. I'm half tempted to call him on  
it, have him dragged out to the People's Court and questioned... but  
it would take valuable time out of my schedule.  
  
***  
  
We've done some more research on the 'ice-wraiths' and  
gotten the reports back today. Firstly, the boy is named 'Saotome  
Ranma.' Apparently, the girl lost control, somehow, and he froze  
them both with his power, locking them in place.  
  
It's interesting, though it truly defies explanation...  
records indicate that he was able to produce some kind of 'cold' at  
will, and seemingly produced localized weather disturbances.  
  
What sketchy intelligence we have indicates that he fought  
both Councilman Herb, and Councilwoman Cologne, before she passed  
away.  
  
It's... an odd thing, to be dealing with people like that.  
  
We've all seen the vids of Saffron's takeover, and forcible  
unity of the Qinghai Confederacy... Though it defies logic, we have  
seen him produce fire at will, and his servants were able to produce  
some kind of blade from air with their wings.  
  
We might have won a ground war against them, were it not for  
the Musk and the Joketsuzoku. The Amazons could make a tank collapse  
into pieces with their bare hands, and it was damn near impossible  
to attack them when they could look like they split into nine  
separate people and circled around you. Some of them knew Ranma's  
localized weather disturbance trick, too.  
  
Herb, on the other hand, was just another Saffron with a lot  
less bloodlust, and greater focus. He could fly without wings and  
lob bolts of energy that simply melted through whatever armor  
plating was available. He could even dodge bullets, as could most of  
the Musk. The few who couldn't dodge bullets had a nasty habit of  
not dying from it.  
  
No wonder that the few bloody, decorated heroes of the  
Qinghai Confederacy were so feared... but here we had access to  
someone who had defeated them.  
  
Miss Tendo's plea held a certain amount of interest to me,  
at that point...  
  
***  
  
Jen Di died today. Don Hai was understanding, and gave me a  
day off when I found out... but I turned it down.  
  
She was executed for Treason against the People. I never  
realized in all the time that I called her 'friend', she was a  
traitor... Wouldn't want to mourn a traitor's death.  
  
***  
  
I've gotten approval from the board. We're going to allow  
Miss Tendo access, and use her to revive Ranma. He's got too much  
potential as a weapon to ignore. Records indicate that Akane was not  
stable, so we're going to have to destroy her beyond revival.  
  
I've been reporting on those two for so long over the last  
three years, that I don't even use full names... which is even  
stranger, since I _know_ they're fey...  
  
Anyway, we're going to supply some equipment, but Miss Tendo  
has a sizable grant backing her up. It's a pity that we need her  
expertise on the revival process, but it's best to have a real  
expert working on this situation, rather than leave it to our own  
techs.  
  
Control of the subject is... questionable. We know that it  
can be achieved, but we aren't certain which methods will work best.  
Drugs might affect his performance, since it appears to be a state  
of mind more than any kind of genetic predisposition, unlike Herb  
and Saffron.  
  
If it's something as simple as training, then it's also  
possible that we can train others to be like him. He stopped  
Akane... I found a vid of her, actually. She looks distorted when  
she walks, like Herb and Saffron do. A reaction from the film, I  
suppose.  
  
The odd thing is that in the one vid that we do have of her  
passing through a populated area, she seemed oblivious to the damage  
that her presence caused. We caught a vid of Ranma, at some point.  
Happenstance, actually; he was passing through the wake of the ice-  
wraith's passage, and a news crew that was reporting several days  
after the event happened to spot him walking through.  
  
I sent a copy of the vid to Miss Tendo, and she sent me back  
a copy of a film of Ranma. His presence doesn't distort the media at  
all, which leads me to believe that he does have much better  
control. I'm pleased that he's the one we decided to capture, then.  
  
Miss Tendo also told me that her parents were on the vid,  
following Ranma. Interesting. I'm curious, and looking forward to  
meeting her.  
  
***  
  
[Spirit: Yang]  
  
  
It's cold, and lonely. I can sense her, nearby... I wish I  
could reach her, but I can't. Until she reaches for me, she's not  
ready.  
  
I wish I didn't have to do what I did.  
  
I want to let us both pass on, but the key hasn't been  
brought to us yet.  
  
I love her. I miss her, and it hurts to be like this.  
  
'So close, and yet, so far.'  
  
That never meant anything to me until this happened.  
  
Akane...  
  
-------------------------------  
Author's Notes:  
  
07-23-01 -- revised  
  
Thanks to Nanashi for his non-technical help with this, and  
Bjorn for his technical help with this.  
  
08-03-04 -- revised  
  
Thanks, Ginrai, for your valiant pre-reading.  
  
The stage is set. 


	4. Waves End -- Starlit Tears

Wave's End -- Starlit Tears  
  
A 'Compass Points' Side-Story  
  
And a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
----------------------------  
  
[Chime: One]  
  
Dreams again.  
  
He wasn't lost -- never as he had been.  
  
But this time... he didn't know where he was.  
  
Oddly, he still had no real sense of being _lost_... just  
not knowing where he was.  
  
He wasn't certain how such a thing could be... so it must  
have been a dream.  
  
***  
  
[Fate's Question]  
  
Three sisters surrounded him, each in turn shifting to the  
last, baffling him.  
  
But beyond that, he knew who they were.  
  
"What do you want with me?"  
  
They froze, becoming static.  
  
The eldest spoke first. "We simply need you to make a  
choice, poppet."  
  
***  
  
[Chime: Two]  
  
The grass was always greener.  
  
Not that he'd allow himself to believe that, anymore. It  
wasn't really greener. Empty promises. The only real things in the  
world were those that you crafted with your own hands. Real things.  
  
Things that could be touched, carried...  
  
Not the flimsy ethereal stuff of dreams.  
  
***  
  
[Beacon]  
  
Sometimes, he noticed, his mind wandered.  
  
And with it, his feet, though never as far as he once had  
traveled.  
  
He shook his head, turning his attention back to the road,  
and the call that drew him onward.  
  
"Akari..." he murmured.  
  
***  
  
[Chime: Three]  
  
How many chances, he wondered, to change a life?  
  
How many opportunities to change what he had done, what he  
had been...  
  
And try to make a better person of himself for it?  
  
***  
  
[Crone]  
  
"Firstly," she said, "we offer you the stuff of dreams. To  
make real that which is... not."  
  
He blinked, moving to answer, but was hushed by a finger  
across his lips.  
  
"Listen to all, then decide."  
  
***  
  
[Sunlight]  
  
She hummed softly, washing the dishes, and gasping slightly,  
as she thought on the thing she had bought earlier that day. And the  
answer it had given her.  
  
Something that would change her marriage, she felt, and only  
for the better.  
  
But he seemed so distant, lately...  
  
***  
  
[Chime: Four]  
  
"It's fading," he mused, eyeing the target before him.  
  
He tried again, gathering his will, his anger, his  
depression, his very _essence_... and throwing it all into one  
concentrated point.  
  
A ball of sickly light projected from his fingers, becoming  
insubstantial and winking out before reaching the stone he faced.  
"Huh," he mumbled. "Maybe... maybe it never really _was_ real?"  
  
***  
  
[Mother]  
  
"We can let you grow in ways you had thought closed to you  
forever."  
  
He nodded dubiously, remembering to remain silent.  
  
***  
  
[Fireside]  
  
"Mmm..." she murmured contently, leaning into his arm, as he  
enfolded her gently.  
  
He smiled, smelling deeply of her hair, and staring into the  
fire they sat near. "I think... I think I'm happy."  
  
"Mm? I _know_ I am."  
  
***  
  
[Chime: Five]  
  
He grunted, barely managing to lever the gigantic creature  
before him over, pushing it back into the pen it had come from.  
"That's not good," he muttered, catching his breath.  
  
"Dearest?"  
  
He shook his head, staring at his hands, ignoring the sweat  
that had formed on his face despite the nearly constant winter of  
the last two years. "I thought I was stronger..."  
  
***  
  
[Maiden]  
  
"We can give you back what you've lost. Everything you've  
had to do without..."  
  
He blinked, considering. His lost strength, his power... all  
of that could be returned to him?  
  
***  
  
[Impetus]  
  
"Dearest?" she whispered into the darkness, his form next to  
hers on their small bed.  
  
"Mmm?"  
  
"I wanted to tell you first... you're going to be a father."  
  
He smiled, embracing her in the night, happiness  
overwhelming all else for the moment.  
  
***  
  
[Chime: Six]  
  
He nodded, dismissing her worried question. "Not as tough as  
I thought I was."  
  
"Dearest?"  
  
"Everything is fine, I think."  
  
***  
  
[Hero's answer]  
  
"No..." he said, smiling. "It's not worth it. Sorry. I don't  
want to be anything other than what I am. I'm... happy this way."  
  
In one voice, they returned, "As it will be."  
  
***  
  
[Starlight]  
  
"Dearest?" she murmured sleepily, as he stirred near her.  
  
"Nothing," he whispered, watching her outline in the faint  
light of the stars, tears of joy blurring his vision. "I love you."  
  
"I love you too, dearest," she answered, moving to be closer  
with him again.  
  
----------------------------  
Author's Notes:  
  
Hm... what to say? And here you thought that I hated Ryouga.  
  
I don't. But really, I think that he's got a much better  
chance of living a 'normal' life than anyone else... 


	5. Silent Onus -- Unseen Tears of Heaven

Silent Onus: Unseen Tears of Heaven  
  
A 'Compass Points' Side-Story  
  
And a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
[End]  
  
"Great-granddaughter, it is not our way to give up. I can't  
fault you for your loyalty, your bravery, or your tenacity..."  
  
She turned eyes reddened and puffy from long nights of  
crying to the older woman wordlessly.  
  
"I will, however, fault your idiocy. He was never yours to  
lose. Now pack your things, and let us be going."  
  
A voice, rusty from disuse, and unsteady from heartbreak  
asked, "Mama? Will... will Mama still love me?"  
  
"If she doesn't, I'll have to beat sense into her. You  
didn't lose. Now come, we have much to do, and there will never be  
enough time for it."  
  
"Yes... Yes, Great-grandmother."  
  
***  
  
[Palace]  
  
His eyes remained closed, his senses extended. A great and  
terrible bonfire of life force and power had been quenched suddenly.  
  
The reasoning was unknown to him, but the flame was one he  
knew.  
  
Ranma had been slain.  
  
A servant scurried near him, and his senses prickled at the  
imposition of the other being's aura. "Learn subtlety before you  
trespass upon this hall again," he warned, eyes opening.  
  
The servant swallowed uneasily, cat-like steps ringing too-  
loudly in his ears, where they fell silent to all else.  
  
But then, the servant could not be blamed _too_ much. As  
finely as Herb had honed his senses, the man's heartbeat was audible  
to him. "But worry about that later," he said, changing his mind.  
"Fetch me ink and papers. There is a letter that must be written,  
and soon."  
  
The servant nodded, and scurried away.  
  
"I sense change on the wind, and it is near."  
  
***  
  
[Dusty Roads]  
  
"Are you thirsty yet?" She wasn't hopeless -- merely  
wounded. Time would heal it.  
  
The girl grunted wordlessly, shaking her head in negation.  
"I'm fine," she said after a moment.  
  
"Good. We'll reach the village shortly after noon."  
  
Pausing, the girl made a face. "Something... something feels  
off about this."  
  
"Hmm? Well, something's amiss, but I can't tell what, yet.  
Just as well that we head back, now."  
  
"Great-grandmother?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
The girl shivered suddenly, despite the heat of the low  
road. "I have a bad feeling about something."  
  
"Yadagradze Shan," the older woman said, gesturing to a  
nearby mountain with her stick. "We'll be home soon enough, and then  
we can investigate. And you can perform your duty to the tribe."  
Which she felt no need to name.  
  
***  
  
[Letter: Greeting]  
  
"What's it say?"  
  
"It's about Ranma, your Highness."  
  
There was a moment of silence as the youthful emperor  
considered. "Ah? What of him? His friend returned the Kinjakan to  
us." He paused, considering. "The Gekkaja is lost to us, for now."  
  
"Someone from the northern lands by the name of 'Herb'  
suggests that we need to ally ourselves to be strong enough to  
survive what comes next."  
  
Saffron frowned thoughtfully, unwelcome memories of former  
incarnations invading his mind. "What comes next?" he managed,  
bracing himself against the throne with both hands until the surge  
of memories passed. "Ah," he said before he could be answered. "War.  
Yes. I see, now. The world changes, ever so much."  
  
"Ah... that... that is what he said, your Highness."  
  
"Yes, Kiima... draft a letter, then. We seldom had dealings  
with them after the N'dori and the Machin. Mmm. Yes, allying would  
be wise indeed..."  
  
Kiima blinked, surprised, and gathered a quill pen. "As you  
will it, your Highness."  
  
***  
  
[Summit]  
  
"Pardon?" Saffron asked warily, his guards at his back.  
  
"A summit," Herb said again, glancing at Cologne and  
Shampoo, then back to Saffron and Kiima. "That's what they call it  
when governments greet one another and attempt to work out their  
differences peacefully."  
  
Cologne hesitated a moment before speaking, then smiled  
slowly, and sank to a sitting position. "That's not entirely  
correct," she warned, "but it is apt enough. You've won my trust."  
  
Saffron snorted, shaking his head. "I am not most trusting  
your kind, Joketsuzoku though for Prince Herb, I will listen." After  
a moment, he grumbled, gesturing to the springs behind him, "And  
this place is far from being a summit. It's the lowest point in  
several miles."  
  
Snorting, Cologne turned to Herb again. "I trust you  
assembled us here for something important?"  
  
"Yes," Herb said, frowning pensively and sitting  
comfortably. Mint and Lime, sensing his intent, backed away and  
hunkered down. Cologne made a subtle gesture, and Shampoo and the  
other Joketsuzoku did the same.  
  
The two turned to look at Saffron expectantly. He glowered,  
and nodded at Kiima.  
  
She and the remainder of his guard also backed off, leaving  
the trio alone, though Saffron still refused to sit.  
  
Herb smiled hopefully. "Perhaps," he said, "we can stand  
united. However, change is in the wind. My kind seldom associate  
with anyone else outside of the interviews we conduct for brides..."  
he trailed off frowning.  
  
"Recently," he said, shaking his head, "we've seen more of  
the large armored vehicles that the Han military seem to like move  
about in the passes below our stronghold. Aside from that, there is  
a certain premonition of war... I trust I'm not the only one?"  
  
Saffron stiffened, then nodded angrily, and sat. "I will  
agree to attend this summit," he announced. "You have my ear."  
  
***  
  
[Lost]  
  
She wondered what day it was. It was easy, most days, to  
forget, to ignore, to move on...  
  
But sometimes she was still haunted by what she had lost.  
  
No, she told herself. Something that was never hers to lose  
anyway. But she would be hard-pressed to find anyone as... worthy as  
he was.  
  
He was a dragon among men, and everyone else was simply...  
dross in comparison.  
  
As she trained wordlessly, her mind cast back to the events  
of... how long ago? She couldn't remember when, simply that it had  
happened.  
  
Her great-grandmother smirked, watching in silence. Her duty  
was a heavy one, but it would be borne nobly.  
  
***  
  
[Mistrust]  
  
"You are ever welcome within the halls of our mountain,  
Prince Herb."  
  
Herb nodded respectfully to Saffron. "Thank you, Emperor  
Saffron. What cause bids you to summon me so urgently?"  
  
Saffron snapped his fingers, and gestured. Kiima's guards  
dragged the unconscious form of a man in uniform into the room from  
a side hall. Kiima explained, while Saffron brooded silently, "This  
man was looking for us. Many others were with him, but under the  
cover of night, we brought him here and questioned him."  
  
Herb crossed his arms over his chest, nodding. "I see," he  
said gravely. "What do you suggest we do?"  
  
Kiima bit her lip pensively. "It is a difficult situation to  
manage," she said slowly, "but we simply do not know as much about  
the outsiders as the Joketsuzoku do."  
  
"So you think we should ask the Joketsuzoku what they think?  
I see no problem with that."  
  
Saffron snapped out suddenly, "I do not trust them! They  
are... too base. We, and you, we're removed from the rest of...  
humanity? I do not know the word I seek for. But there is a  
difference between we and they, and it is too pronounced, I think,  
for us to work together."  
  
Herb blinked in surprise. "I understand what you mean with  
the differences. At least, I think I do. And some of them _are_ like  
us. I trust them, Emperor Saffron. What can I do to extend trust  
between you and they? Cologne of the Joketsuzoku trusts you. Many  
others have faith in an alliance."  
  
Saffron frowned pensively, then said slowly, "They would not  
act against you, no... perhaps if you were to take a hostage?"  
  
"What?" Herb was stunned. This did not bode well for an  
alliance.  
  
"Yes," he nodded decisively, while Kiima's guards led the  
prone soldier away. "You will ask them for a hostage. I trust you,  
and they trust you. If you hold something they value, they will not  
risk moving against us." He glanced at Kiima. "Kiima, draft a letter  
to the Joketsuzoku outlining my request. Merely as a measure of  
trust."  
  
"Ah... as you wish, Emperor Saffron," Kiima said doubtfully.  
  
***  
  
[Letter: Request]  
  
Cologne pondered the letter before her.  
  
"A hostage," she murmured, thinking. "They want us to send  
someone to a theoretically neutral area as a sign of trust."  
  
"Feh," another elder spat. "'They'. Saffron, you mean. He's  
too petty. Why does he trust the Musk, and not us?"  
  
"That is not known," another said. "But it is the truth.  
I'll admit, I've no great love of the Musk myself, and would trust  
the Phoenix people more. Save Saffron, I suppose."  
  
"Well," yet another said, "it's foolishness anyway. We could  
easily send someone who had no value to us, and satisfy the word of  
his request, without the spirit."  
  
"And yet," warned Cologne, "I think that's what they expect.  
We need to send someone we value, to show that they can trust us,  
and that we are willing to trust them."  
  
"But we aren't willing to trust one of our own with the  
Musk," the second complained.  
  
"I think we have to, if this is to work. I hear rumors that  
the PRC is preparing for a war, but we still don't know against who,  
yet," the third stated.  
  
The fourth spoke again, "War. I've heard that the United  
States of America has started to war already. I can sense a taint in  
the winds that hasn't reached our lands since they attacked Japan  
with nuclear missiles."  
  
"That," Cologne grumbles, "merely proves that we must  
concede to his demands, if for no other reason to prepare ourselves.  
The world outside us is changing, and we'll need to be unified to  
survive. For this, I propose that we send my great-granddaughter to  
them." She sighed. "It's a heavy duty, but she is strong.  
  
Silence reigned as the other three elders studied Cologne in  
surprise.  
  
"I agree," the second elder said hesitantly. "If you are  
willing to risk someone that important to you, then the needs must  
be urgent."  
  
"I am not pleased, but I agree as well," intoned the third.  
  
"Just as well. I'll draw up a letter," the fourth completed.  
  
And in one voice, "So be it."  
  
***  
  
[Welcoming]  
  
"Um..."  
  
She was demure. Calm. Beautiful, even.  
  
"I would like to begin..."  
  
And strong, stronger than any woman he had set eyes on  
before -- save possibly his own cursed form.  
  
"... with an apology..."  
  
And had enough skill to back that strength, most  
impressively.  
  
"... for my servants behavior..."  
  
And apparently wasn't afraid to use it.  
  
"... but, they're not really used to seeing..."  
  
And there was no question that she liked fighting.  
  
"... so much skin. Or women at all. Really."  
  
"It's okay," she said tiredly. "I'll live."  
  
"Um."  
  
***  
  
[Letter: Small Talk]  
  
Dear Great-grandmother,  
  
I should be able to visit you soon, but am very busy. The  
Musk are very strange people, but I've learned a little bit about  
fighting from them.  
  
They seem to focus more on the esoteric arts than we do, but  
it's been educational.  
  
I miss sparring with my spear-sisters, since the Musk are  
either far stronger than is safe to challenge, or far too stupid to  
bother fighting with.  
  
Herb is an interesting person. He reminds me of Ranma,  
sometimes.  
  
Most of the time, he's just his own special kind of stupid,  
though. He got very upset when he walked in on me bathing.  
  
I have to go now.  
  
With much love,  
  
Shan Pu  
  
***  
  
[Aftermath]  
  
Cologne surveyed the ruins of the Musk palace, smoke rising  
from the remains of thousand year old buildings. Stone walls had  
been destroyed by stray mortar fire, ancient statues were now little  
more than scattered rubble.  
  
A pair of the largest warriors pulled massive blocks of  
granite off of the crushed remains of the Musk library, retrieving  
whatever precious scrolls had survived. Saffron stood near her  
warily, his normal unhappy frown changed an outright grimace.  
  
Kiima's eyes remained fixed on the heavens, where the rising  
smoke joined with the now eternally gray skies. "It would seem,"  
Cologne remarked to the woman, "that it _has_ come to touch us.  
Someone should go out and see why."  
  
Saffron frowned at her mistrustfully. "How do you propose we  
go about that?" he asked skeptically.  
  
"I know that you don't trust us," Cologne said, "but there  
is something we have in common. You respected Ranma, yes?"  
  
"Yes," Saffron said slowly. "I did. Why?"  
  
"He has family, and friends. Kiima knows where they are. In  
these skies, it should be possible for her and a few others to reach  
Japan safely, and tell us what's happened. Those who knew Ranma  
should be willing to at least tell us what's going on."  
  
Kiima's wings rustled uncertainly, and she glanced at  
Saffron for approval. He hesitated only a moment before nodding.  
"Go," he said. "Return as quickly as you can, mask your presence  
with ravens." Kiima nodded, but before she could take off, Saffron  
gestured to the guards he had brought with him. "Take them with you,  
and return in _safety_, Kiima."  
  
Cologne raised an eyebrow, as the Phoenix people winged  
upward, leaving Saffron alone.  
  
He eyed her unhappily. "I can learn," he said. "Even though  
it hurts. Ranma changed more than just Jusendo when we battled. More  
than just the mountain, too."  
  
Cackling, the Joketsuzoku woman said, "He's changed us all,  
hasn't he?"  
  
"He and Herb, yes."  
  
They both turned to look at Herb, male in the slight rain  
that began to sprinkle down. Male because despite his outward calm,  
his anger was intense enough to make his aura visible even to the  
eyes of the untrained, lambent sheets of ki flame roiling off him in  
waves, evaporating the water before it could strike him.  
  
"Indeed."  
  
***  
  
[Foundlings]  
  
"We are not beggars to take of any charity that is offered,"  
he said stiffly.  
  
She responded quickly, "Then you are idiots, Herb. You can  
stay with us, or you can stay with the Phoenix. Perhaps you can  
divide your forces and stay in both places. We simply don't have the  
_time_ to allow you to build a new home."  
  
"Saffron will not be pleased," he warned.  
  
She paused, considering, "I doubt he would. Perhaps we can  
all build a mutual stronghold. Saffron resents that your library  
might be added to ours, yes?"  
  
"Mostly, yes. The combined lore would be great. You have the  
leavings of the Machin, and we the N'dori."  
  
"Then I have a proposal for you."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
She smiled, nodding knowingly, "We would simply combine our  
libraries at a mutually beneficial location. Store all three of them  
as a library for all of us. A gesture of trust. Then we can move our  
defenseless -- the untrained men, the children, the healers -- to  
Phoenix Mountain. We will all share our knowledge, and all benefit.  
Only by working together can we survive."  
  
"Your people will never stand for it," he warned.  
  
"There is one way they can be convinced," she said  
thoughtfully.  
  
"How is that?"  
  
"If you accept our library as a dowry..."  
  
***  
  
[Letter: Invitation]  
  
Nabiki eyed the envelope thoughtfully.  
  
Her schedule was hectic, and there was a lot that needed to  
be juggled around. And China hadn't been a safe place to visit by  
any stretch for a long while.  
  
But friends were friends...  
  
She frowned thoughtfully. "I wish I could attend," she  
murmured.  
  
"Nabiki? Is something wrong?"  
  
"We were invited to a wedding, Dear."  
  
"Really? Who?"  
  
"Shan Pu and... Uh... 'Herb' apparently."  
  
"Where?"  
  
She sighed, setting the letter back down. "I wish I could  
go," she said. "But it's too dangerous, and who would take care of  
Ranko?"  
  
"Invite them to visit us sometime, then."  
  
***  
  
[Sanctuary]  
  
"Um..."  
  
She regarded him frankly, eyeing him up and down. "What?"  
  
"I'll... I'll sleep on the bed," he declared. "I'll have  
some extra blankets brought for you so that you can sleep on the  
floor."  
  
Her eyes turned to the cold, hard, stone floor, then the  
warm, soft bed. Narrowing, they turned to Herb. "I'll fight you for  
it. Winner gets the bed."  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Let's go!" with that, she launched a strike at his throat,  
which he blocked more out of reflex than intent.  
  
When the battle was over, both warriors sunk to the floor,  
exhausted. "I can't go all out without hurting you," Herb panted,  
"or I would have won!"  
  
"You're a very stupid man," Shampoo assured him. "You would  
lose to me anyway."  
  
"If you weren't my wife, I'd have you beaten for that."  
  
"If you weren't the prince of the Musk, I'd show you where  
_your_ place was!"  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Um..."  
  
"What? What? What is this infuriating 'Um...' for?"  
  
"Who gets the bed? We tied."  
  
"Um..."  
  
***  
  
[Beginning]  
  
Perhaps, she thought, she was mistaken. Perhaps Herb was  
nothing like Ranma at all.  
  
But many of the qualities she had loved in him, Herb  
carried. And many she loved, he did not. And even things more she  
never thought she would like at all, she loved in him.  
  
"You're an arrogant fool," she whispered lovingly.  
  
He jerked his head about to look at her, surprised. "What?"  
he asked, frowning.  
  
"Nothing, Herb. Merely that I believe that even though I did  
not when I asked you for marriage, I now realize I've come to be  
quite fond of you."  
  
"Oh?" He smirked, an unusual expression for him, and  
straightened his robes about him subconsciously. "I suppose someone  
of my stature is hard to resist."  
  
She giggled, pecking him on the cheek, and breathing softly  
on his neck, "Tell me, does the sight of my skin still make you  
angry?"  
  
He swallowed, eyes widening. "What are you talking about,  
woman?" he asked uncertainly.  
  
"Your confidence seems to have faded, Airen," she teased.  
  
"Don't call me that," he whined, backing into a corner, as  
Shampoo winked, and undid the ties on the front of her silk shirt.  
  
"Airen," she teased one final time, silencing his further  
complaints with a firm, yet gentle kiss.  
  
----------------------------------------  
Author's Notes:  
  
Next up, not Compass Points: Act Four -- Flesh and Bone,  
even though you'd probably expect it, but NORTH. And yes, between  
the Compass Points, the Fall should become clear, though I harbor a  
firm suspicion it will never be entirely revealed.  
  
However, this story can fit nicely between Compass Points:  
Act One and Compass Points: Act Two. I hope you enjoy it! 


	6. Now Only Right Thine Heart

Now Only Right Thine Heart  
  
A 'Compass Points' Side-Story  
  
And a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
----------------------------------------  
  
[Walkabout]  
  
He stared at his hands in a sort of fascinated shock.  
Probably unable to believe what he had done.  
  
"What happens next?"  
  
She looked much the same as he felt, seeming completely at a  
loss, for a change.  
  
"I'm not sure. Maybe we should take back the Kinjakan?"  
  
Both sets of eyes turned to the pieces of the staff, the  
iron ring and rod resting against the wall beneath a small window.  
  
"Yeah... we can do that. That would work."  
  
The window, which was half-white with the rise of snow  
pressed against the glass, and half-white with the steam of their  
breath.  
  
"We have to send a letter to tell them what happened."  
  
There was a moment of silence, allowing the whispering winds  
outside to rise in volume to a shrieking howl, as they flung more  
snow against the side of the building.  
  
"Yes. You're right."  
  
Neither needed to say that they weren't going back  
immediately.  
  
***  
  
[Discovery]  
  
"You know, this journey has been pleasant."  
  
He glanced at her, nodding. "Yes," he said at length,  
surveying the warmer desert below them. "We should probably get out  
of China, though. We can head back east, or south."  
  
"Mmm," she mused, frowning. "You know, the most irritating  
thing about traveling is dealing with 'that' time of the month."  
  
He fell silent, not really wanting to think about it.  
  
"Which, fortunately, hasn't happened this month. I wonder  
why."  
  
A shudder swept through him, and he turned to look her in  
the eye. "I'm sorry. I didn't... I..." Words failed him, and he  
spread his hands helplessly, looking up at her, where she sat  
perched on a boulder above his path.  
  
She didn't look as angry as bemused. "Nothing to forgive.  
Normally, I'd be much more upset, but after seeing... that..." she  
trailed off, considering.  
  
He nodded, the nightmare of ice and snow still playing in  
his own memory. "Yes," he said slowly. "But I still feel that I  
should have been more responsible."  
  
"Yeah? Tell you what you can do to make it up to me, then."  
  
"What's that?" he asked cautiously.  
  
"Do it again, the next time we find a place to stay."  
  
***  
  
[End of the Road]  
  
He surveyed the quay, frowning. "I have a feeling... I don't  
want to sound too silly about the entire thing, dear, but I have a  
feeling that we should really be heading back, soon."  
  
She nodded, one hand resting on her swollen belly. "Yes,"  
she said. "I want our child to be born in our own land."  
  
A smile came to his lips at that thought. "I never would  
have expected this," he mused. "But I can't really complain."  
  
An eyebrow arched upwards at that. "You'd better not," she  
warned.  
  
Snorting, he began walking towards the ship. "I'd rather not  
swim back home. Let's get going."  
  
***  
  
[Home at Last]  
  
"And, um, so, Tendo-san, I'd like to ask for your daughter's  
hand in marriage."  
  
Soun had not been himself since hearing of Ranma and Akane's  
demise. Nabiki knew better than to share the possibility of their  
revival with him, for fear of his overreaction. "Oh?" he said,  
pulling himself forcibly back from the brink of his despair.  
  
The older man's eyes took in the doctor, his clothing  
travel-worn and threadbare, and his daughter. Her own clothing was  
little better, and she carried a child already. Asking him for  
permission was somewhat moot, at that point.  
  
"Fine," he said in a clipped tone. "I grant permission."  
  
His daughter winced suddenly, one hand dropping to her  
abdomen, as she swallowed. "Your timing is priceless," she said,  
leaning heavily against the doctor. "Call an ambulance?"  
  
***  
  
[Pride and Joy]  
  
She was exhausted, though the pain was fading, slowly  
lessening. "You know," she remarked drowsily, "I really _don't_ plan  
on going through that again."  
  
He laughed softly, cradling their child nearby. "I won't  
complain. That didn't look very comfortable to you."  
  
"Good. Now, before I fall asleep... let me see her again."  
  
"Of course."  
  
She reached out her arms, taking the child from Tofu and  
hugging it gently to herself. "Her name... she... she should be  
named Ranko," she stated firmly before exhaustion finally overcame  
her.  
  
***  
  
[Visitation]  
  
She stepped into the house warily. Her sister had said  
nothing more than, 'there are visitors from China here to see you,'  
but there could be any number of meanings to that.  
  
She quashed down the small bubble of hope that rose within  
her chest as she considered the possibility that it was Ranma and  
Akane. That couldn't happen.  
  
Her footsteps came to a sudden halt as she beheld who the  
guests were, kneeling calmly before the opened shoji panels facing  
the koi pond and garden. Three of them, Kiima and her two  
attendants.  
  
The three turned to look at her as she entered, while her  
sister continued with simple pleasantries and poured tea.  
  
"What brings you here?" she asked guardedly.  
  
The winged woman set her teacup down carefully, nodding  
politely to Kasumi before turning to address the elder sister. "We  
seek information about what has been going on in the world," she  
stated simply. "It impinges on us, and we must be prepared to make  
our move. We have no great desire to be crushed by things we never  
see coming."  
  
Anger and worry mingled, both finally giving way to sense.  
"Maybe I can help you," she said slowly. "We don't have a lot of  
time, though. Kasumi? Can you fetch me a red pen, and the atlas of  
the world?"  
  
While her sister scurried off to du her bidding, Nabiki sat  
thoughtfully at the table. Kiima raised an eyebrow, her attendants  
remaining silent behind her, wings ruffling nervously in agitation.  
"You will tell us, then?"  
  
"I might be able to do more than just that," Nabiki  
muttered. "Tell Shampoo and Herb that this is a late wedding  
present. Now, this all began, I think, even though it's not terribly  
clear..."  
  
***  
  
[Exchange]  
  
"Dear, it's not that I think what you're doing is wrong...  
it's that money is tight enough as it is. We can't really afford to  
keep on doing this."  
  
She hesitated, eyeing the scattered paperwork on the table  
before her. "I... I can't just stop," she said. "But what else can  
we do?"  
  
He considered for a long moment, then rubbed his chin  
thoughtfully. "Unless you can find a way to make money off of this,  
I'm afraid not."  
  
Her face fell, and she sighed. "I don't know... I want to  
help... but... maybe..."  
  
His eyebrows rose in a silent question, as a smile bloomed  
on her face. "I may just have a plan," she remarked thoughtfully.  
  
***  
  
[Hello Again]  
  
"Shan Pu! Herb! It's been so long -- how have you been?"  
  
The one smiled cheerily, and embraced the woman before her  
in a sisterly hug. "Good, Nabiki, good! You are very helpful to us."  
  
The other moodily said, "We are... better... for your  
intercession, Tendo-sama."  
  
"That's not needed, thank you."  
  
A small voice asked, "Who are you?"  
  
Gathering up her daughter, Nabiki explained, "This is my  
daughter, Ranko."  
  
The Joketsuzoku woman smiled broadly, teeth showing in a  
fierce grin. "He would have been proud."  
  
"I... I hope so."  
  
***  
  
[Trade]  
  
"So what did they give you?"  
  
"A few thousand tons of steel, mined and refined by the  
Musk."  
  
"And?"  
  
"It's more durable than it really should be, and combines  
with other metals for immensely powerful and durable alloys."  
  
"I see."  
  
"And, uh... it's fey. But people don't need to know that,  
because there's a scientific reason backing the mythical one."  
  
"Hmm. You could make an awful lot of money with this."  
  
"I know."  
  
***  
  
[Growth]  
  
"Dear..." Worry.  
  
"What now?" Irritation.  
  
"It's time that we told Ranko the truth about Ranma and  
Akane." Conviction.  
  
"Why? What good would that do?" Confusion.  
  
"If anyone can bring them back, it's not going to be me.  
I... have a feeling that she's the key, if there is one." Pride.  
  
"I'm very busy. Just... do what you think is necessary."  
Approval.  
  
***  
  
[Education]  
  
"Now, Ranko, you're getting older, and, well, there are some  
thing you probably should know..."  
  
Bright eyes blinked in confusion. "Daddy? I already know --  
we had sex education like, over a year ago."  
  
There was a long moment of silence, interrupted by a man's  
coughing. "Um. Yes, but that's not what this is about. This is about  
your uncle."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Your uncle, Ranma."  
  
Confusion melted into joy. "You're finally going to tell me?  
This is _awesome_!"  
  
"Now... we haven't been _that_ uptight about information  
from you... have we?"  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Tell me about my uncle Ranma! And, like,  
when did he and Shampoo break up?"  
  
Another long moment of silence. "What?"  
  
"He was dating Shampoo, right?"  
  
"Um... I guess, once in a while, but... no. They weren't  
dating like you're probably thinking."  
  
"Well then, did he piss her off so much that she became a  
lesbian? Is that why she married a woman?"  
  
"Well, you see... actually, I'll explain that some other  
time. It's really complicated. What I want to talk to you about, is  
Ranma. You see, Ranma was a martial artist..."  
  
***  
  
[Farewell]  
  
"Okay, I might not see you guys for a while, I need to go  
down and put together some equipment and make arrangements."  
  
Her father nodded stoically, a hint of a smile betraying his  
approval. Her mother simply nodded doubtfully.  
  
"Ranko, dear... be VERY careful."  
  
"Yes, we wouldn't want you to put yourself in any more risk  
than you need to."  
  
She offered her parents a knowing grin. "I can manage this.  
All I need is some of what you've told me about Uncle's luck."  
  
----------------------------------------  
Author's Notes:  
  
This story is mostly just for symmetry. Fits between act one  
and two, but can really just go about anywhere. 


	7. Act III: Body and Mind

Body and Mind  
  
Compass Points: Act III  
  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
----------------------------  
  
Nabiki and Tofu slid to a halt near a small grove of  
evergreens, as the avalanche above them died out. The Tendo girl  
gasped for breath, then staggered to her feet, surveying her  
surroundings.  
  
After regaining his feet, Tofu removed the ring from the  
Kinjakan and tossed it to Nabiki, then pointed to a marker blazed  
onto a nearby tree. "We can be in the village we set out from by  
nightfall, if we hurry."  
  
Nabiki frowned, shaking her head. "What about Ranma and  
Akane?"  
  
The older man turned to look at the thin spire of ice,  
jutting out from above the white cloud that seemed impossibly far  
away. It stood as a memorial to the fallen youths. "I don't know.  
Who can say what the future holds?"  
  
The -- now youngest -- of the Tendo sisters slumped back to  
her knees. "They're... dead?"  
  
Tofu considered for a moment, then hefted the uncapped staff  
in his hands. "Yes... But I think Ranma had to have had a plan. I  
just don't know what it was."  
  
Nabiki was lost in thought. She had the will. There were  
factors against her, but there was some potential. And where there  
was a will....  
  
***  
  
She woke in a cold sweat, the way she always did when she  
woke from that dream. Sitting up slowly to avoid waking her husband,  
she pawed at the blackness to the side of her bed for a moment  
before hitting something. It began to glow, softly at first, then  
more brightly, as she stared at the luminous numbers on the clock's  
display.  
  
Sighing, she climbed to her feet, padding towards the  
doorway as the light from the clock faded, and a soft glow formed in  
response to her footsteps, outlining the hall.  
  
She grabbed a robe from a hook, and threw it on, closing the  
door softly behind her. Once the door was closed, the light began  
increasing in brightness slowly, allowing her time to adjust. She  
stared at the lights for a long moment, remembering the lights of  
her childhood, and their simple harsh brightness.  
  
Shaking her head, she tramped into the kitchen, where the  
coffee machine was already percolating. She frowned thoughtfully. "I  
wonder if all of this has made me soft?"  
  
Her musing was interrupted as her husband slipped into the  
room silently, his presence subtle enough that he triggered none of  
the sensors she had. She frowned at that, cocking her head to one  
side, as he smirked at her. "Perhaps, perhaps not. Looking at the  
alternatives, I'm pleased things are the way that they are."  
  
She turned away, ignoring him until her coffee was ready.  
Sipping at it, she relaxed, making a contented humming noise. In  
response, the sensors activated the blinds, drawing them up and  
flooding the apartment with the pre-dawn glow.  
  
Tofu stared at the rising sun thoughtfully, absently putting  
his arm around his wife's shoulder, as she leant comfortably against  
him. "Morning," she said at length.  
  
"Hmm..." he mused, frowning at the electric lights. "I  
wonder if they're learning not to see me."  
  
She turned to look at him. "I know you're going to be one...  
and I know that Ranma and Akane are. What about Ranko?"  
  
He tightened his grip on her, holding her tightly, and she  
had to wonder how something that firm could not be real. "I don't  
know. I think that Ranma is the center, somehow."  
  
"Even in death?"  
  
"It's a common enough theme," Tofu said slowly. "Heroes  
aren't always stopped merely by death..."  
  
"What about Akane? She wasn't a hero."  
  
He was silent for a long moment. "I don't know. We can't say  
who Ranma is, yet. We only know _some_ of the Qinghai Confederacy  
are. Saffron is--"  
  
She cut him off. "Everyone is someone, right? What about me?  
I don't want to be separate from you." She pushed away from him,  
staring into the murky depths of her coffee cup. "And I'm not  
anyone."  
  
"I don't know," Tofu said softly.  
  
***  
  
She brushed her hair back, sighing happily. The quay was  
much lower than it had been in her parents day. The cold of nuclear  
winter in her earliest youth had restored the once melting ice caps,  
however temporarily.  
  
She glanced at the ancient shoreline, some meters higher up  
the beach then where the water currently lay, and smirked. Another  
few centimeters this year. Eventually it would be restored to the  
way it had been before the Fall.  
  
Shaking herself out of her reverie, she approached the  
rounded skimmer at the end of the quay, bobbing with the motion of  
the water. There was a small shack at the end, near the skimmer.  
Much too small and crude to house a person. Perhaps it was an  
office.  
  
She knocked at the door, and a muffled voice answered her  
from inside. "Jus' a minute."  
  
Waiting patiently, she turned to study the skimmer itself.  
It looked outdated, but the finish was new, and it was compact. It  
had a theoretical capacity of eight people plus freight, but was  
small enough to be run capably by a single person. A 'corsair', she  
remembered. Tendo Heavy had stopped producing them some years back,  
as the demand went for either heavier and more durable craft, or  
lighter and faster vehicles.  
  
The door opened partially, and a tall, lanky man squeezed  
out through the small gap. He frowned, as a long ribbon at his  
sleeve caught momentarily, then freed himself. He nodded once,  
tugging at a small metallic turtle pendant at his neck. "Yo," he  
said, his eyes traveling up and down, exploring her body  
shamelessly.  
  
The girl smirked, her stance widening as she placed her  
hands on her hips. "I hear you're a pilot. That's your craft?"  
  
He jerked a nod, pulling his attention from her body,  
outlined clearly in the bodysuit she had chosen for the occasion.  
Meeting her eyes, he frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. She  
eyed him in return, noting his odd, loose fitting outfit. "Where are  
you from?" she asked, wondering at the flowing cloth.  
  
"Out, mostly. I'm one o' 'them', Missy, if that bothers ya.  
Should know before ya try an' hire me."  
  
She shrugged indifferently. "It's been happening more  
lately. My dad is, too. We think I might be, but aren't sure. Some  
of our friends from the Qinghai Confederacy told us about it. They  
saw it first. They say it's weaker towards NR Xinjiang, and that's  
where we're going. Can you operate there?"  
  
"Dunno. Never tried it." His eyes flicked across hers, his  
smile widened slightly. "Mos' folks get all nervousy roun' us.  
Anyway, Xinjiang's kinda hot, ya know? What kinda run is it?"  
  
"It's clean, not hot," she said, frowning somewhat. "You'd  
have to be an idiot to try and go up against Xinjiang without  
cleaning things up with them first."  
  
"Heh. I like yer style. Name's Keitaro Koara. Keitaro's  
given name, Koara's family. Ma's from Out, too, so she names me  
after a frien'."  
  
Blinking, she extended a hand to shake his warmly. "Tendo  
Ranko, Tendo's the family name. Don't you want to know why we're  
going to Xinjiang?"  
  
He blinked, his eyes seeming to nearly glow for a moment in  
the sunlight. "'S about the Ranma, ain't it?"  
  
***  
  
"So... what does it mean to be 'Fey', anyway?"  
  
"Well, it's not exactly a _scientific_ condition, Ranko.  
Otherwise we'd have an answer for everything. That's the way it  
works, though..."  
  
"So you're telling me that the only reason it took so long  
is because we needed to find a technical solution, not a mythical  
one?"  
  
"For the most part... yes."  
  
"Daddy! I can hardly believe this... I might have been...  
wait, how can you be, if you're that founded in science?"  
  
"It's something that defies explanation. It won't work for  
you, either. Either you are, or you aren't. Things like 'science'  
and 'magic' can really be the same at an advanced enough level."  
  
"Oh..."  
  
"Aside from which, do you _want_ to be Fey?"  
  
"I... I couldn't complain, Daddy..."  
  
***  
  
"Mom? Everything... everything is ready. I'm going to send  
most of the equipment over freight. I hired a pilot to handle a  
personal skimmer. I've heard that he's good... and I trust him  
because he's... you know."  
  
The face on the view screen flickered for a moment, the  
connection negotiating some difficulty, and when it returned,  
Ranko's mother nodded gravely. "Take care of yourself, Ranko. I wish  
you had time to visit us before... good luck."  
  
Ranko smirked, seeing the lines of worry etched in her  
mother's face. "Take it easy, Mom. I'll be just fine. I'll be back  
before you know it! I have to go, now. Love you, tell Daddy I love  
him too, okay?"  
  
***  
  
"Chairman Saffron?"  
  
He glanced over, his wings flapping once irritably. It was  
an odd thing, to not be a part of the cycle. Without needing to burn  
himself out over ten years... "When we are alone, Herb, please  
address me as Saffron."  
  
"Saffron."  
  
Shaking his head, Saffron turned to look at the slightly  
shorter man. "What is it, then?"  
  
The man frowned, tugging idly at one dragon-scale bracer. "I  
think one of them is coming back."  
  
Saffron raised an eyebrow. "One of 'them'?"  
  
"Yes... another of the minor set."  
  
Saffron's brow furrowed in thought. "I see. What does this  
mean?"  
  
"Well, you know that from a scientific and technical  
standpoint that we can't exist. It seems that there are pillars that  
can allow us to be... when we should not."  
  
"This is not something new to me."  
  
"Yes, of course. You are a not pillar, though I am. Cologne  
was not, nor is my wife."  
  
"I'm not? I'm of the major set, then?"  
  
"Indeed. This leaves three pillars unaccounted for."  
  
Saffron mulled that over for a long moment. "There are four,  
not three?"  
  
"Not a trinity. Corners of a square."  
  
"Ah..." Saffron's eyes became distant, as he considered.  
"Very well, then. If I am not a pillar, what am I?"  
  
"The Emperor, of course."  
  
"Fah. That title, perhaps, was once appropriate. Now..."  
  
"Of course, not with this regime. At any rate. I suspect  
that my place is then... Swords."  
  
Saffron considered that for a moment. "Ah, a prince of the  
Musk. Then you would be..." He trailed off, nodding to himself.  
"What, then, of this 'other'?"  
  
"I believe that Ranma is another like myself. Cups. For...  
he is similar and opposite me in many ways."  
  
Saffron stared at Herb for a long moment. "Then we are lost,  
for he is dead."  
  
"Not... necessarily. I've been speaking with his family..."  
  
***  
  
The cold is confining beyond belief. I don't know how much  
longer I can handle it. It's so... so empty, so lonely...  
  
But I remain, forever away from his touch. I am alone... and  
it hurts.  
  
***  
  
Keitaro whooped, hunching over the control console and  
grinning like a maniac. A monstrous wave came out of nowhere,  
threatening to capsize the skimmer, and he gunned the accelerator,  
riding up the arc of the approaching wall of water, and flying  
across the ocean.  
  
Ranko held herself steady, barely keeping the seasickness at  
bay, and clung to the handhold by her seat with all her might.  
"Where did that wave come from?" she yelled, trying to be heard over  
Keitaro's mad whooping.  
  
"Out, likely. Them bigguns like to play at the edges, ya  
know." He thumbed a switch, causing the levs to activate, and saving  
the craft from smashing into the sea below. Ranko sighed in relief  
at that; the ship would survive probably any impact, and she might,  
too. The cargo in the back, however, was more fragile.  
  
"How long till we reach the mainland?" she asked, dismissing  
Keitaro's talk about the edges. If there were boundaries, they would  
be everywhere, not simply at sea.  
  
"Eh... prolly another hour'r so.." He stretched, stepping  
away from the steering yoke and haphazardly slapping a large yellow  
button. "We got some time. Wanna talk?"  
  
Ranko shrugged, loosening the straps binding her to the  
seat. "I suppose. Why did you wait so long to activate the levs?"  
  
Keitaro grimaced, flopping into a nearby seat. "Dunno. I  
like bein' part a' the sea, ya know? Flyin' over the water is great,  
but skimmer's built to float. Gotta use it. No sense bein' able to,  
an' not."  
  
She shook her head. "Okay. We're going to need to stop in  
Lesser Japan before crossing into Greater Hong Kong. Our guide in NR  
Xinjiang is named 'Shia Hai'. Even though it's closer to travel  
through Qinghai, and we have allies there... we're going in through  
the south, through... Xizang."  
  
"'Shia Hai'? 'Sea o' Summer'? Got yer classic irony, there.  
Anyway... Tibet, eh? Ma always wan'ed to go there. Dunno why,  
though."  
  
"Er... yes. At any rate... we'll pick up some things and  
another skimmer will join us as we head in."  
  
Keitaro grimaced. "Another skimmer? Wha's wrong with the  
Tama?"  
  
"Honestly?"  
  
"Wait... wait... I get it. Some o' yer crew don' like us,  
right?"  
  
"Ah... yes. Sorry."  
  
"'Sa'right. Happens lots."  
  
***  
  
Keitaro leant against the skimmer, wearing a heavy coat and  
warmer clothing as he conceded to the intense cold inland.  
  
Ranko shivered herself, her teeth chattering. "It's colder  
than I thought it would be," she said.  
  
The man snorted, shaking his head. "Ain't col' enough.  
Tama's gotta cool 'er engines a bit. Let 'er res' 'fore we go to  
Xinjiang."  
  
Crossing her arms beneath her chest, Ranko looked around the  
icy and snowed slope that the skimmer sat on. "Tibet," she said  
softly. "I always expected... I don't know. I thought it would have  
more people in it."  
  
Keitaro snorted again. "Don' know 'bout that. Only reason  
I'm lettin' the Tama rest up is in case we gotta run from Xinjiang  
er anythin'. We go to Qinghai if things get bad, eh?"  
  
Ranko nodded, leaning against the skimmer near Keitaro and  
surprising herself with its warmth. "Yes, we have allies there."  
  
***  
  
Surveying the site, she nodded. The temporary facility to  
house the workers would be... sufficient. At no small cost to the  
People, but for the weapon that they were attempting to recover, it  
would be worthwhile.  
  
She brushed a strand of her hair out of her face and  
grimaced unhappily. Unruly, unkempt. It would have been shorter for  
her tastes, except that they had decided she should look more like  
one of the Japanese girls to make Tendo feel more relaxed.  
  
Ranko was, of course, the biggest obstacle to a smoothly  
running operation. And sadly necessary since she was the only one  
with the technical expertise to back the goals of the mission.  
  
Shivering slightly against the chill of the air, she sighed.  
Tomorrow, she would arrive with a pair of skimmers. They were  
reluctant to allow them into their territory with their own craft,  
but Tendo had paid them nicely with some of Tendo Heavy's finest.  
  
Enough to make a small difference, since some of the  
weaponry could prove to be effective against the Musk... But Tendo  
was allied with Qinghai. That much was known. Would she knowingly  
provide weapons that could damage her allies? Still... there was her  
curiosity to be assuaged.  
  
***  
  
There it was. A towering column of ice, monumental in every  
conceivable sense. Forcibly turning her attention away, she focused  
on the slim, composed woman before her.  
  
Shia Hai said nothing, instead nodding and pausing her  
introductions to the facility to stare at the structure herself.  
"The ice..." she said slowly, her accent calculated and practiced,  
"we've tried to cut our way in a little, but the tools break." She  
nodded to herself once, her eyes playing across the upper spires of  
the mass of frozen water. "Ice cold-- The ice gets colder the closer  
we get. Hardens. Shatters our tools. You have a plan?"  
  
Ranko shivered, but managed a weak nod. "Yes, I have a  
plan." She glanced back to the skimmer, Keitaro moodily perched on  
the prow and looking down at the snow. Shia Hai shot a glare towards  
the young man that was nothing short of a sneer, and looked away  
quickly. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"No, Miss Tendo. Everything... is fine. We have little trust  
of... the Outers."  
  
The Tendo girl simply nodded, understanding. Perhaps the  
reason that there were so few fey in Xinjiang was truly due to  
killing, as the rumors contested... She banished that line of  
thought. First things first, and that meant... "Don't worry. He's  
promised me he'll stay with his skimmer. In the meantime, the Tama  
has what we'll need later -- I'll unpack it myself. The Orion is  
carrying all of the excavation tools."  
  
Shia Hai smiled grimly. "Then we should get to work."  
  
***  
  
"Miss Tendo?"  
  
The young woman broke herself out of her reverie, and turned  
to face the technician. Her tone was carefully level, not admitting  
a hint of emotion, as she glanced at Shia Hai, to her side. "Yes?"  
The woman followed her _everywhere_.  
  
The tech swallowed nervously, wiping his hands against his  
lime-green lab-coat in a nervous gesture. He falteringly offered, in  
his thickly accented Japanese, "The... sign seem stable."  
  
Her eyes swung to the display before her, and she gave a  
curt nod, replying in his own Mandarin and causing Shia Hai to  
frown. "Begin the procedure."  
  
***  
  
Death is an odd thing, when one is bound to a dead body.  
Akane found it best to contemplate silently... though there was  
never a response when she tried to be 'loud'... she simply felt  
safer thinking her thoughts softly. Ranma was near her -- impossibly  
near, mere centimeters between their bodies... but out of her reach  
forever.  
  
She could sense his presence, his spirit, surrounding her.  
Nearly enveloping her. Tantalizingly close, like lovers whose lips  
almost touch in a kiss, painfully sweet in closeness... but not  
enough. She could reach out towards him, spread her own spirit  
beyond her body to close the distance... but she didn't know if he  
would accept her.  
  
Was he her lover, come to protect her in the end from  
herself? Or was he her jailer, protecting everyone else from her? If  
she could have answered that question... but she couldn't, and she  
remained floating in a void of contemplation, so close... so  
painfully close... and did not reach out to him.  
  
***  
  
Ranko grimaced, wondering at the stares she attracted. She  
wore skin-tight body armor; Tendo Heavy's very best, which was much  
more revealing than anything that the locals seemed to be familiar  
with. The thermal insulation was almost enough to counter the cold,  
and she wasn't about to abandon the suit, but the stares were  
beginning to wear thin. Xinjiang was not used to seeing women  
dressed in anything so... non-conservative.  
  
Returning to her quarters aboard the Tama, she switched on  
the intercom, listening to the technicians as they worked, and  
searching through her clothing for something that would fit over her  
body-suit and -- hopefully -- make her less of an eyesore. To them,  
at least.  
  
Faint static muffled the voices on the intercom slightly,  
though she could make them out without straining.  
  
"Ten meters."  
  
"Looking good... holding... stress is about 40% of capacity.  
That's pretty severe for this kind of ice."  
  
"Tango, check the temperature on that shaft, it's wobbling a  
little too much for my tastes."  
  
"Ah... damn. We're looking at about -- Get your men out of  
there NOW!"  
  
"Tango, roger that. Evac!"  
  
"Status?"  
  
"Another... 6 meters."  
  
"Main shaft? It's at about 16 degrees."  
  
"Mm.... Tango, maybe that procedure was immature?"  
  
"That's in Kelvin, not Fahrenheit or Celsius."  
  
"I see. Halt immediately, and withdraw. The signs aren't as  
good as they thought, are they?"  
  
Ranko sunk her head, resting her face on her hands. They  
were trying so hard... Dragging herself up from her despair, she  
considered her final option. They wouldn't like it, but the ice was  
impervious to all other attempts...  
  
Pressing a button, she snapped out over the intercom, "The  
operation is over. There's only one way through this."  
  
For a moment, there was absolute silence. Then all of the  
lines came to life at once. "Understood, Miss Tendo."  
  
***  
  
Ranma felt himself drifting, surrounding Akane. His body --  
and his sprit -- tantalizingly close... but not willing to touch.  
Akane was safe here. To be any other way... He would have sighed,  
were his body not dead, and he focused on keeping the cold active.  
  
He wondered to himself if he had become an ice-demon, a  
spirit that would haunt the mountain and any who dared to climb  
it... but he pushed that thought away, and instead focused his  
attention on Akane. She was so close... he longed to reach out to  
her, but knew better.  
  
Being together with Akane forever. So close and so far at  
the same time. He pondered, trying to decide if it were heaven or  
hell, and how long he'd be there. He pushed those thoughts aside,  
too, and turned his attention inward. Even in death, he had work to  
be done.  
  
***  
  
Shia Hai took a long drag from her cigarette, staring at the  
hand-typed report on the desk before her. The room was locked, the  
security disabled, and the typewriter inaccessible to all but  
herself. No wires or connections to tell anyone what she had typed,  
aside from those she delivered the note to herself.  
  
She took another drag, mumbling aloud to herself as she  
read. "So, it is the findings of myself that while not entirely  
trustworthy, there is no immediate danger in granting the request  
provided we apply certain severe limitations."  
  
Another drag, and the cigarette was stubbed out, as she  
paused to expel the smoke. "This is also the most expedient path,  
and while some risks are posed, it is the opinions of this office  
that it is the scenario with the least amount of potential to fail.  
Extensive measures will have to be taken to ensure..." she trailed  
off, frowning. "Did I spell that right? Damn it..."  
  
Sighing, she set the page to one side of the typewriter,  
mumbling to herself as she began typing again.  
  
Once done, and satisfied, she crumpled the older papers into  
a ball, and tossed them into the rubbish bin, cracking a window open  
despite the chill to let the smoke fade. Tucking the newly typed  
pages into an envelope, she rose. Stretching, she placed the package  
of cigarettes into her pocket, the envelope securely in hand, and  
wandered into the hall, closing the door firmly behind her, and  
checking to make sure that it was locked.  
  
And with her gone, a small flying creature crawled through  
the narrow gap in the window, making a beeline towards the trash bin  
before leaving again.  
  
***  
  
Keitaro sat at the pilot's seat, rifling through some  
creased and crumpled papers, a wooden pipe unlit and clenched in his  
teeth as he mumbled softly.  
  
Ranko stretched, ducking to clear the bulkhead before the  
main cabin, and called out, "Morning, Keitaro. Any word on that  
package yet? Shia Hai said that there was a lot of paperwork  
involved before we could authorize what we're planning."  
  
Keitaro shrugged, wadding up the paper and tossing it into  
the air. "Nothin' doin', yet. Figger a week, maybe two, then things  
get movin' 'gain." He swatted the ball of paper with his pipe, not  
glancing as it flew into a small metal rubbish bin, already aflame.  
  
Ranko smirked. "Can do that even here, eh?"  
  
"Ya, easy stuff." Keitaro seemed tense and distracted,  
looking elsewhere.  
  
"I thought you didn't smoke?" Ranko asked, wondering about  
the pipe.  
  
Keitaro shrugged, gesturing towards Ranko with the pipe,  
clean as the day it was made, with no signs of singing or tobacco  
upon it. "Don'. Jus' liketa have this aroun' for stuff like that."  
  
***  
  
Keitaro stretched languorously, his palms smacking against  
the steering yoke of the craft. Ranko had taken to keeping the young  
pilot company, preferring his company to that of Shia Hai. Shia Hai  
was simply too... off... somehow, beneath her seemingly friendly and  
calm exterior.  
  
Not that Keitaro didn't seem to have his share of secrets,  
but she trusted him. More than anyone else at the site other than  
the few technicians she had brought. And they preferred their own  
company the most.  
  
Sighing, she studied Keitaro, as he idly looked out at the  
snowy landscape before the skimmer. "Time to Power down," he  
muttered, his hands working at a switch beneath the control yoke.  
  
"Power down? You mean you've left the skimmer running since  
we've gotten here?" Ranko asked, surprised.  
  
"Yup," Keitaro confirmed, as the low whine of the skimmer's  
engines faded into her hearing range before grinding to a halt.  
"Gotta give the engines a lil' rest, and reboot the main system."  
  
He yawned, thumbing a few more switches, and the consoles  
all flickered for a moment before turning black, shortly to be  
replaced with reboot diagnostics and onscreen displays. Ranko  
watched, fascinated, until the boot sequence was complete, and the  
main computer chirped, "Myu!"  
  
She giggled. "What's that supposed to be?"  
  
Keitaro shrugged, leaning back into his chair and monitoring  
some screen idly. "Some pet o' my father's, from what I hear." He  
mumbled, shaking his head. "It's col' out there today." With that,  
he thumbed the engines back on, and they whirred back to life.  
"We're good," he muttered, seemingly satisfied, relaxing back into  
his seat.  
  
***  
  
Shia Hai grumbled, reading through the documents before her.  
"Yes," she said slowly, "it's all in order. Let her through, with...  
the weapon."  
  
The heavily armed and armored guards nodded, four of them  
following a short distance behind the Amazon woman. Their states  
were not in such extreme distrust of one another that they were not  
allowed to travel into each other's lands... but the people of NR  
Xinjiang had no great trust for the fey.  
  
The Amazon ignored them, one hand idly tracing the  
scrollwork along the heavy metal ring belted to her waist. "I have  
only half of the tool," she warned Shia Hai. "The other half is  
being carried by my husband."  
  
Shia Hai grimaced distastefully, but hid her distaste after  
a moment. "I see." She followed in the snow alongside the guards,  
behind the Amazon. "Is the other half going to be needed?"  
  
"Yes. My husband will deliver it."  
  
Shia Hai's grimace returned more forcefully. "We only  
authorized one f--" She caught herself, and coughed loudly, as the  
Amazon turned, staring at her expectantly.  
  
"Only one what?" she asked innocently, her eyes seemingly  
trusting.  
  
Collecting herself, Shia Hai explained, "We can only allow  
one... esteemed warrior such as yourself to set foot within this  
perimeter. If there are to be more, there is paperwork to be filled  
out." She nodded, satisfied that she had covered her mistake.  
  
"He will not set foot within your perimeter, then."  
  
Shia Hai bit her lip. "It is... it is said you cannot lie."  
  
The Amazon nodded, her seemingly liquid eyes still locked on  
Shia. "That it is."  
  
"Then, I have your word?"  
  
Smiling softly, the Amazon nodded again. "You have my word.  
My husband will not set foot within your camp, unless war is  
declared upon us."  
  
Only partially reassured, Shia Hai nodded. "Very well,  
then."  
  
***  
  
Keitaro watched Ranko as she idly toyed with the ring.  
"S'that?" he asked, slurring his voice even more than normal.  
  
She seemed not to notice, removing the ring from her lap and  
holding it up to the light of the setting sun. "Apparently, this is  
half of the Kinjakan. We're going to use it to cut through the ice."  
Her eyes became distant, as she remembered her father's retelling of  
the story. "This is the last thing Uncle Ranma held before he..."  
She trailed off, simply staring at the ring in a certain grim  
fascination.  
  
Keitaro raised an eyebrow. "The Ranma used it, eh?"  
  
She nodded, frowning, and lowering the ring to her lap. "Why  
do you call him 'the Ranma'?"  
  
He blinked, seemingly surprised. "Oh, ya know how it is.  
Just the accent. No special reason, 'r anythin'..." With that, he  
shrugged, staring off into the snow outside the skimmer.  
  
Ranko dismissed it for the moment, slowly standing, and  
holding the giant ring in one hand. "Well," she commented,  
stretching, "I'm going to talk to the woman who brought this. She's  
probably the only one who can use it, anyway."  
  
***  
  
Ranko watched the flaxen-haired woman, wondering who she  
was, and how she had retrieved the other half of the weapon. The  
woman smiled politely at her, then turned the ice, striding forward  
purposefully.  
  
Several rows of technicians, Shia Hai, and a number of  
guards lined the perimeter, watching closely. The Amazon ignored  
them, tapping the ring of the staff against the outer edge of the  
ice. It seemed to... waver... once, and then the staff emitted a low  
hum, and a very faint glow.  
  
The assembled people edged away, giving the Amazon room to  
work, as the edge of the ring bit into the structure before it,  
hissing steam rising from the point of contact.  
  
Ranko watched attentively, as the woman slowly worked her  
way deeper into the structure. Shia Hai and a pair of her guards  
followed the woman carefully, causing Ranko to worry. Why weren't  
they sending in techs? She opened her mouth to ask, but a hand fell  
on her shoulder, and she wheeled about, seeing one of the younger  
techs that Shia Hai had assigned to her. "Miss?" he asked, his  
accent slowly having improved over the weeks they had spent in  
pursuit of penetrating the ice.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"We need to prepare for their retrieval."  
  
She nodded, her mind frantically assembling all the things  
that would need to be done, and dismissing the oddity...  
  
***  
  
Shia Hai followed behind the Amazon carefully, shivering at  
the nearness of all the ice... but the woman was creating a channel  
easily wide enough for two or three of Shia Hai to walk abreast, and  
not touch the sides. Quickly, too. Much more quickly than she had  
begun.  
  
The People did not like plans that involved guesswork or  
gambling. And this was one such plan... They weren't certain how it  
worked, only that it lay within the ice.  
  
The woman before them stopped suddenly, staring forward, and  
lowering her weapon. Shia Hai peered over her shoulder, her camera  
serving as an excuse. But behind the wall of ice... there they were.  
  
None of the attempts had gotten so close, before. Merely a  
meter left.  
  
The woman whispered something softly, whimpering, and  
nodded, raising the weapon once more.  
  
Shia Hai signaled her guards, preparing for the part of the  
plan that was nothing more than a gamble.  
  
The Amazon pressed forward again, causing the mass of ice  
overhead to groan and creak alarmingly. A fissure sprang up from the  
wall before them, deepening, climbing upwards with a shuddering  
series of snaps. The two halves of the structure, separated by the  
weapon in the Amazon's hands, fell apart slowly, stopping when the  
degree of separation was about ninety degrees, leaving it looking  
like a giant shell that had cracked open, revealing an egg-shaped  
core of ice inside.  
  
And inside that ice, their _own_ weapon. Simply waiting for  
the Amazon to release it. She did so, tapping the ring against the  
top of the small egg-shaped icy sphere that contained the two  
bodies, and the small scythe-like implement beneath them. Blood had  
frozen in the egg, still flowing from the boy's body, frozen mid-  
fall.  
  
Shia Hai shuddered, and the ice cracked, shattering into a  
dozen large pieces. Two of them larger, containing the bodies. The  
Amazon sighed, hunching over and gathering her breath. Good, Shia  
Hai thought. That much easier to finish what they had intended to  
start.  
  
She brushed past the Amazon, gesturing towards the boy and  
his block of ice. A pair of guards approached, their powered body-  
armor allowing them to lift him, and hustle back towards the  
compound, where the techs would take over the situation. The other  
pair of guards approached the girl, setting the shaped charges they  
had readied earlier.  
  
The Amazon opened her mouth to say something, but Shia Hai  
silenced her, lunging for the scythe that had been freed, and  
swinging it viciously behind her. For all of their vaunted prowess,  
the Amazon had only enough time to blink, raising one arm to deflect  
the blow.  
  
Perhaps, Shia Hai thought, relieved, she was trying to use  
the supposed 'fey talents' that they had heard about. Not that it  
mattered now, she smiled, dropping the scythe and clearing out of  
the blast site. One of the guards stopped to move the Amazon,  
encased in ice as she was. If Miss Tendo's plan worked, then perhaps  
she could be used, too.  
  
She thumbed her wrist communicator open, broadcasting on a  
public frequency. "This is Shia Hai, from the northern arm research  
facility. There's been an accident--" Communications shut off with a  
squealing burst of static, as the explosives behind her detonated.  
  
Shia Hai smiled, drawing a cigarette from the pack in her  
pocket, and putting it to her lips, still unlit. The communications  
link opened up only a moment later. "Both of the Tendo Heavy ships  
that were sent to us were destroyed. We request backup," she said,  
carefully speaking around the cigarette.  
  
The guards nodded, the pair of them setting the frozen  
Amazon down, and jogging swiftly towards the parked ships. The Orion  
lay closest, and would be destroyed casually, the Tama, more  
carefully. They'd want the... thing... that piloted it alive.  
  
***  
  
Keitaro cracked his knuckles, shaking his head and watching  
the plume of smoke and fire that trailed from an RPC as it lanced  
through the chill air, striking the Orion like God's fist. The Orion  
was not heavily armored enough to withstand the round, and the shell  
pierced it easily, detonating inside, and sending the entirety of  
its engine, components, and everything else inside to rain down  
around the wreckage in flames.  
  
"Tendo's not gonna be happy about this one," he mumbled to  
himself.  
  
The computer chirped a query at him.  
  
"Tama, go from 'standby' to 'low power' mode. And open a  
channel to Qinghai."  
  
A chirp of negation sounded. "Figures." He was silent for a  
moment, watching a small troupe of power-armored soldiers trudge  
towards him through the snow. "They probably have anti-air artillery  
hidden around here. They wouldn't risk letting me get away..."  
  
His head swiveled to scan a monitor, as it flashed suddenly,  
and the computer chirped again. He blinked, scanning to another  
monitor, locked on the excavation site.  
  
And the frozen Amazon.  
  
"Oh, shit. They just put themselves in the middle of two  
angry Dragons." He contemplated silently for a moment, debating his  
options.  
  
First and foremost, he needed to protect the Tendo girl.  
That was the important part. Retrieving Ranma, in any form was the  
second task that he had been entrusted with. Not nearly as important  
as protecting the living, but still very important. Keeping Herb  
from committing an act of war was not on the list, but he was  
supposed to keep things level.  
  
"Okay, Dad, looks like I'm going to be borrowing some of  
your power later, unless you think that the King of Cups can fix  
it." A hollow pounding noise rang out from access hatch. "And quick,  
too..."  
  
***  
  
Ranko punched in the last of the data onto the terminal  
before her. "Okay," she said nervously, unsettled by the explosions  
that had rocked the compound earlier. "This should work, though it's  
probably going to take a few hours before it's complete."  
  
The technician nodded, glancing over the control panels into  
the sealed room with the boy's body, and a pair of doctors in heavy  
protective gear from the environment. Hermetically sealed suits. No  
air would reach them, and they could hopefully heal the wound across  
his chest before it was a major issue.  
  
The doctors carefully lined up a thermal auto-bandage over  
the wound, though it wouldn't be activated yet. Once it was aligned  
correctly, they nodded, and retreated through an airlock. When it  
was clear, Ranko thumbed a switch, flooding the room with a faintly  
glowing amber liquid. A pair of faint, slim paddles descended,  
coming to rest above Ranma's body just short of the ice.  
  
More instruments descended, an anchor for the bandage, to  
keep it aligned, then a small array of wires that bit into the ice,  
glowing red, and carving off the excess. "Okay," Ranko said,  
realizing too late that she was repeating herself in her  
nervousness. "This should take care of it."  
  
The technician nodded. "I think I understand the process,"  
he said. "Well enough, anyway."  
  
Ranko turned to look at the man inquisitively, but he had  
backed up, and was holding a pistol trained on her. "What are you  
doing?"  
  
"Please step away from the machinery, Miss Tendo. We do not  
wish to damage it, and you do not wish to stop the revival of your  
uncle. If you cooperate, you will live."  
  
***  
  
There was pain. Undeniable, unbelievable, and far too much  
of it.  
  
It had been decades since he had _felt_ at all.  
  
It was not the release he had been expecting at all. A  
sudden wash of something flowed across him, triggering the familiar  
change.  
  
Maybe it _was_ pain, and maybe it _was_ the curse... but it  
felt _good_.  
  
Her eyes yet refused to open, and she felt like her entire  
body was encased in some kind of jelly, and she distantly heard  
someone's speech, reverberating and distorted.  
  
"...that's it. Does he know Mandarin?"  
  
"Probably not. He shouldn't understand us, and there's no  
way that he can hear us anyway. Does it... wait a moment. Wasn't  
that a guy a few minutes ago?"  
  
"Ah, shit! I think we blew up the wrong one!"  
  
Her eyes opened.  
  
"Damage is regressing -- control? Control? Where the hell is  
control!"  
  
***  
  
"Yeah," Keitaro whispered, "we're in trouble now."  
  
He ignored the poundings at the entry hatch to his craft,  
focusing on the instrumentation instead.  
  
"Idiots."  
  
----------------------------  
Author's notes:  
  
This is... mostly what I had planned from the start with a  
few minor departures, and one major one. Keitaro is (somewhat) based  
off of characters from Love Hina, property of TV Tokyo and Ken  
Akamatsu.  
  
Now to think about NORTH and SOUTH. 


	8. Act IV: Flesh and Blood

Flesh and Blood  
  
Compass Points: Act IV  
  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's paints, my easel.  
  
Notes: This act screams to be written in a surrealist style.  
I make no promises.  
----------------------------  
  
Safely ensconced within his skimmer, Keitaro removed his  
pipe from his pocket, and a moment later, his father's card. "Sorry,  
Dad," he whispered. "I know you hate it when your kids ask you for  
help."  
  
He rose from his chair and moved to the large steel door  
that he could hear the guards pounding on. When their armor proved  
too weak to batter down the steel that the Musk had mined, smelted,  
refined, and then given to the Tendo clan to forge, they would  
resort to a pneumatic ram.  
  
Placing the card against the reverberating door, he tapped  
it once with his pipe, pleased at the small glow that suffused it,  
sealing it to the door. And more importantly, sealing the door from  
the outside.  
  
He studied the image on the card, the sign of infinity, and  
a genially smiling man completely aware of the precipice he pranced  
upon. He smirked, ignoring the other images -- the animal following  
the figure, the flower in his hand. "Thanks, Dad."  
  
Retreating from the door to the bridge of his skimmer again,  
he eyed the monitors and telltales. "Heavy, heavy, heavy..." he  
sighed, as he plotted how to retrieve her without aggravating an  
already dire situation. "Gotta figure this one out," he muttered.  
"There's a way."  
  
***  
  
Hands bound before her in thick wire, she sat in the empty  
supply closet, alone. She had tested the bonds briefly, but given  
up.  
  
The soldiers who had bound her knew what they were doing,  
and her own foray into martial arts had been decidedly brief. She  
was the farthest thing from a warrior she had ever known. Hands  
trembling, she raised them to her collar, asking in a quavering  
voice, "Keitaro?" Her voice caught, and she coughed. "Keitaro?" she  
asked again more clearly, fumbling for the communications pin. "Are  
you there?"  
  
His voice answered three heartbeats later, tinny and small  
through the miniscule communications device, "I hear ya. What's  
wrong?"  
  
She tried to calm herself. "I'm scared, Keitaro. They tied  
me up and locked me in a closet. I don't know what's going on."  
  
"Never should 'ave trusted them," he remarked sadly. "I'ma  
gon' have ta track ya down. Can you sing, Ranko?"  
  
She stared at the slim light of light that shone underneath  
the door, frowning. Not 'Miss Tendo', but 'Ranko'. Stifling a  
hysterical giggle, she asked, "What should I sing?"  
  
"Do you know 'Sweet Blue Days'?"  
  
This time she did giggle, failing against her panic, but  
quickly stopped herself. "Yes, my mother loved it. Why do you want  
me to sing?"  
  
"To track you down," he replied, annoyance staining his  
voice. "The bunker's pretty thick, and stops most of the Tama's  
sensors dead -- added to the guards I got pounding the beat on my  
door already... Oh, never mind. I'll do it," he grumbled. She  
blinked. That song was a duet...  
  
Keitaro's voice, strong and resonant, began calling softly  
through her communication pin. Drawing herself out of her stupor,  
and pressing the button to lock the communication link open, she  
picked up from the second verse, singing along with him.  
  
His voice assured her, as he left her to sing alone, "That's  
good. Keep it up."  
  
***  
  
The liquid surrounding her rippled, shimmered, and fell  
before her will. The gelatinous substance began to thicken, stiffen,  
then shrink, dissolving into a bluish powder.  
  
A calm, collected corner of her mind noted and filed that  
information away, as she sat up, still clad in her torn Chinese  
clothing. The wound on her chest had sealed itself, now little more  
than a scar and a memory. The more present part of her mind seethed  
icily, and she extended a hand towards the glass barrier between her  
and the sniveling, cowardly men before her.  
  
The glass compacted, shimmered, and finally shattered, as a  
thin layer of ice swept out from around her feet, enveloping  
everything.  
  
"Vengeance," she whispered, staring at the small islands of  
safety around the two men, clinging to one another like frightened  
children. "Vengeance."  
  
***  
  
Their relationship, he knew, was hardly traditional. It was  
something that had begun out of necessity, and evolved from that.  
  
What it had turned into, however, was something very real,  
and worth more to him than all of the steel his people could mine  
for their allies. More than his heritage.  
  
And so much more -- oh so much more -- than their lives.  
  
Ki-flame became true flame in the blink of an eye, bathing  
and pouring from his body like molten hate itself.  
  
They would pay.  
  
***  
  
Shia Hai stood at the remains of the icy spire, now a rudely  
bisected pile of icy chunks. The serrated edges gleamed in the  
light, and she drew her goggles down to protect her eyes. Tactical  
displays and updates scrolled by slowly, and she thumbed them off,  
trusting her aides to notify her if there was a problem.  
  
The compound was still and quiet below her. Her earplug  
carried the faint murmuring of technicians as the operation  
proceeded. A faint message came across the link as the power-armored  
soldiers admitted their inability to penetrate the hull of the...  
unclean thing's vehicle.  
  
She left the command to her second, and switched off all but  
the most important channels. Whipping her shoulder-length hair about  
wildly, a stiff wind rose. Her gear protected her from the cold,  
much bulkier survival and thermal protection than Miss Tendo had  
worn. Miss Tendo's flagrant preference to comfort and fashion fell  
short in Shia Hai's own perception, however.  
  
The Tendo girl's clothing might have protected her from the  
cold, but it wouldn't stop bullets. Her clothing, of course, would  
stop conventional ballistics, and was tested to block out the  
majority of the rads in a blast. Surviving the blast was a risky  
proposition at best, but it would allow her to weather the fallout  
and live to serve the People another day.  
  
Sighing audibly, she stepped through the single channel that  
cut completely through the icy ruins that had only a day previously  
been an impenetrable fortress. It galled her that the key to the  
puzzle had been an... Amazon... instead of a product of the People's  
own hard work.  
  
It galled her too that they were attempting to harness  
something they didn't completely understand, but that wasn't her  
concern. She was simply a liaison, and since the retrieval process  
for their weapon of choice was complete, there was no need for her.  
A message came across the communications link, informing her that  
Miss Tendo had been placed in protective custody.  
  
"Thank you," she said, activating the return link.  
"Continue."  
  
Her own command could override any present, but there was no  
need to. Nor was there a need for her to manage anything else  
personally. The People's Army was a finely oiled machine.  
  
She smiled grimly, ignoring the squeal of static as she  
stepped to the center of the icy hills.  
  
Seven large pieces, and numerous small ones. Perhaps...  
perhaps she could be thawed out of the chunks of ice that  
encapsulated her remains. Shia Hai sighed, sitting on a larger  
block. "I never got to know you that well," she mused. "But I feel  
you've been a part of my life."  
  
Falling silent, she allowed her eyes to drift across the  
circular depression. A fine, solid spray of red coated the entire  
area. What the shaped charges hadn't turned to ash, they had melted,  
only to be refrozen into smaller pieces. "Ironic, since the  
culmination of my life was the absolute destruction of yours," she  
mused.  
  
The faint breeze picked up again, prompting her to raise her  
scarf over her mouth. She chuckled wryly, climbing to her feet and  
staring down on the remains below her. "Spiteful?" she asked. "It's  
too late now. Nothing can be done... no power can revive you now,  
and if it can, this entire area will be molten glass at this time  
tomorrow."  
  
She leaned forward, gathering the pair of discarded weapons.  
She'd just as soon not have to touch them with her own hands, but  
they were too dangerous to leave lying about. "You, my pretties,"  
she addressed them as she held one in each hand, "should have been  
destroyed."  
  
Dropping them behind her, she fished a cigarette out of her  
pocket, and lowered her scarf. The wind had stopped for the moment,  
and she intended to enjoy one last minute with Akane. The part of  
her life that would be gone, shortly. She eyed the iron ring  
dubiously, lighting a safety match and inhaling sharply.  
  
The acrid smoke poured into her lungs, and she sighed,  
blowing towards the crater. "You know it's not personal," she said.  
"It's just a control thing. We probably can't control you. Hell, I'm  
not convinced we can manage Ranma."  
  
She laughed bitterly, tapping the ash from her cigarette  
behind her respectfully, rather than on the remains of the one she  
addressed as a comrade. "Damned fools. I'd just as soon keep my  
hands free of the affair. No 'magic', no... just the People. I just  
want the People to be strong." A grimace crossed her face, and she  
puffed silently for a minute before saying, "Like I say, it's not  
personal."  
  
And, chillingly, the squealing static on her communicator  
shattered, a faint voice saying, "I forgive you..."  
  
Shia Hai bolted upright, dropping her cigarette. "Who said  
that?" she snapped out, on edge from the voice.  
  
The answer came, "... but I don't know if he can."  
  
And then there was silence.  
  
Shia Hai tapped on her communications links, stunned to find  
them all dead. The mountain chose that moment to jump, knocking her  
to the ground unceremoniously to land roughly on her backside, as  
clouds of black smoke and white fire shot upwards from around the  
icy monument's remains.  
  
***  
  
Anger. It overpowered every other aspect of his being,  
burning through him to sear his very senses away into a white-hot  
miasma of fury.  
  
He threw his arms wide, vaguely aware of the liquefied steel  
and seared flesh that spattered freely about him, the pristine white  
surface of the mountain beneath him boiling into steam, not pausing  
for a moment to flow as a liquid.  
  
Great white clouds billowed about him, and still, he pulled  
on the wellspring of energy inside him, pouring his all into the  
rage.  
  
And on it flowed.  
  
***  
  
Wrath. She remained calm, composed.  
  
A fleeing technician froze literally, flesh becoming ice,  
and then colder, breaking down into cold component parts. She nearly  
smiled. Nearly.  
  
More cold. She focused herself and her being tighter,  
attempting to perfect the focus. Steel walls shattered about her,  
engines and electronics reduced to coldly smoking ruins.  
  
But one place resisted her perfection.  
  
Summoned, she turned her attention to the small island of  
resistance.  
  
***  
  
Voice trembling, choking back tears of fear and worry, the  
girl quavered uncertainly, trailing off when the walls of the closet  
about her shattered, exploding away like tissue rent by an angry  
titan.  
  
Before her, in a loose, relaxed stance, still clad in her  
Chinese clothing -- old Chinese, not modern -- stood before her a  
form she recognized clinically as Ranma.  
  
But the blazing red hair, shimmering and iridescent with  
ice, blue eyes, colder than the deepest chill she had even known,  
and an expression that spoke of a complete lack of emotion reminded  
her of nothing more than Shiva, or perhaps Charon. The red-haired  
goddess of death reached towards her, the cold about her hands so  
intense that the very air was reduced to liquid -- and was halted by  
a sparkling flash of amber and gold.  
  
Ranko belatedly realized that more than anything else,  
Keitaro had been right. Not 'Ranma', oh no, 'Ranma' was a name for a  
person. The being was so much more than merely a person. It was  
_the_ Ranma. And she spoke, calm, composed, dulcet tones, "Who are  
you?"  
  
Finding her voice only after Keitaro's epithet in her ear  
cured her dumbness, she said, "I'm... Tendo Ranko."  
  
Impossibly cerulean eyes blinked twice in confusion, and  
much of the cold about the redhead seemed to dissipate. "Indeed?"  
Those same blue eyes narrowed to slits, and the cold resumed,  
intensified. "And you are responsible for what was done to Akane?"  
  
"What?" Ranko managed, backpedaling frantically, falling  
backwards. "No! I... I always wanted to meet my uncle and aunt! I  
never wanted anyone to get hurt! I'm sorry!"  
  
Her eyes screwed shut, and all was silent, though in the  
distance she could hear yells and the sounds of a great fire. A  
heartbeat later, and her own breathing sounded, Keitaro having  
fallen silent. A hand grasped her wrist, and she was hauled  
unceremoniously to her feet. Her wrist bindings shattered, falling  
to the floor below.  
  
The girl standing near her suddenly seemed to be very human,  
and smiled grimly. "Okay, I'm real sorry about that. Let's go..."  
the softness leaked out of the girl, as she drew her hand back,  
becoming cold again. "Go to Akane."  
  
Ranko nodded numbly, seeing the wreckage of the compound.  
Meter thick steel bulkheads, reduced to icy splinters of metal,  
living quarters -- everything. Including the multi-million dollar  
equipment that was needed to restore the frozen to life. She  
followed behind Ranma gingerly, as the redhead stalked forward.  
  
Somehow, she couldn't regret the loss. Machines could be  
replaced later, and if they were kept out of the hands of people who  
would abuse their power, so much the better. "Tell me," Ranma's said  
stiffly, "how did you stop me?"  
  
Ranko shook her head, admitting, "I'm not sure. Keitaro  
asked me to sing... I think he wove a spell."  
  
"Something like that," the man muttered across the  
communications link.  
  
Ranma nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, and  
strode from the remains of the compound into the fiery bowels of  
hell itself.  
  
***  
  
Heaving for breath, Keitaro placed his pipe in a pocket with  
a trembling hand. Protecting Ranko from that kind of power wasn't  
easy, even with his father's help. "Sorry, Dad, it's gonna get a  
whole lot uglier, too."  
  
Straightening, he staggered to the doorway. The power-  
armored guards had bigger and more dangerous things to worry about  
at the moment. He retrieved the pipe from his pocket and knocked it  
once against the tarot card on the door. Its amber glow faded, and  
it dropped from the door to land in his outstretched hands.  
  
"Tama," he said suddenly, addressing the ship's computer.  
  
It chirped a simple query at him.  
  
"Are they still jamming communications, or can we reach  
Qinghai yet?"  
  
The computer chirped negation.  
  
Keitaro grunted, and returned to watching the telltales.  
"Figured as much," he muttered sourly. "Not like they'll miss this  
anyway."  
  
***  
  
Ranko staggered back, raising an arm to shield herself from  
the flames as they erupted from the ground nearby, cleansing the  
Earth of snow in a mere instant. But the fires did not touch her,  
balked by the same glow of amber and gold that had shielded her from  
Ranma before Ranma had calmed.  
  
Cocking her head to one side, as though considering, Ranma  
smiled. "So," she said softly. "Herb."  
  
Ranko stepped back worriedly, hovering on the line between  
the baked Earth, and the shattered and frozen steel.  
  
Ranma stood in the midst of the ground, either not minding  
or not aware of the flames. "Where did this all come from?" Ranko  
asked anxiously.  
  
"Herb," Ranma said simply. "He is in pain, and angry."  
Ranma's arms spread, rising above her head. The fires near her  
snuffed out immediately, steam turning back to ice and falling upon  
the ground to shatter with gentle bell-like noises. The snow from  
behind the compound flowed upward, surging like a great wave  
preparing to overbear the girl.  
  
Ranko swallowed nervously, feeling very small in a battle  
between giants. The smoke and fires died down, revealing a stretch  
of blasted and baked ground between the compound and the monument  
that had only recently housed Ranma and Akane. An island of snow  
protected from the heat and the fires neatly ringed the structure.  
  
And in the center, a man robed in heat, a column of white  
and yellow flames rising about him. The pillar of fire billowed  
upwards and out, a Dragon of flame coiled protectively above the  
man. He leaned forward, and as he did, so too did the Dragon of  
fire, hissing and spitting angrily at an APC as it limped across the  
snow in the distance.  
  
The APC fired vainly, steel shells liquefying before they  
reached him, as Herb lashed out again, streams of fire hot and angry  
enough to rival the sun its brightness and severity flying true to  
lick for only a moment across the steel frame. The vehicle halted  
suddenly, and shuddered once in the manner of a dying beast before  
collapsing into a steaming puddle of molten ore.  
  
Ranko's tongue stuck to her mouth, and she staggered away,  
fearful. The man's eyes lit upon her, and flickered only briefly,  
but the mere glance left her breathless, and mortally afraid.  
  
Where Ranma had been calmly collected and clinically  
efficient, Herb was a wildfire, uncontrolled and unrestrained. Ranko  
stumbled back until Keitaro's voice reached her suddenly, and she  
realized he had been yelling to her for some time. "... damn it,  
girl! STOP! You're gonna back into the goddamned dragon! Get a grip  
on yourself! I can't move without drawin' Herb's attention, and my  
father's not going to protect EITHER of us from that!"  
  
"Okay," Ranko said, eyeing the dragon of flames as it  
stepped forward, one molten and flowing claw slamming heavily into  
the earth. "Where should I go?" she asked, afraid.  
  
"Left. AWAY from the APC. Towards the Tama. Don' get too  
close yet-- the guards nearby're still runnin' aroun' in power  
armor."  
  
Ranko paused, still following the line of scorched Earth and  
frozen steel. She turned to look behind her slowly, alarmed. Above  
Ranma, like an obscenely beautiful mockery of perfection, a gleaming  
and crystalline Dragon of ice hunkered, watching Herb's own fiery  
companion, considering. A mammoth tail twitched, and Ranko fell down  
wincing as the sound barrier cracked over her head.  
  
Herb reared his head back and yelled for all he was worth,  
the coruscating waves of flame thickened from a steady rush to an  
outright blast, the searing heat making Ranko flinch even from over  
a hundred meters away. Ranma cast a glance towards her, frowning,  
but her attention returned to Herb as his shout ended, the fiery  
manifestation before him stepping forward once more in challenge to  
Ranma's own.  
  
Ranma's lips quirked in a strange smile, as the creature  
above him flowed forwards, body of ice, but moving like a rushing  
torrent of water. Herb's power was so blatantly obvious, and Ranma's  
so frighteningly subtle. They were likely perfectly matched in every  
respect.  
  
Ranko quivered, body tense with worry, and scrambled to her  
feet. "Wait!" she shouted. "You can't fight! We can't fight! Not  
here! It's not safe!"  
  
The two gargantuan creatures and their respective masters  
turned to look at her, Herb with a confounded anger, Ranma with a  
calculating curiosity.  
  
She swallowed nervously, as Keitaro chastised her, "You done  
got yourself killed, girl. I was startin' to like ya, too."  
  
Herb stalked forward a step, then paused, and Ranma nodded  
knowingly, banishing her servant of ice and power into a fine icy  
mist. "It is as she speaks," Ranma said sedately. "You must calm  
yourself before it is too late."  
  
With effort, the man did so. The serpentine leviathan above  
him puffed out, leaving only smoke and memory to tell of its  
passage, a thin drift of snow already hiding the evidence of his  
wrath. Ranko could still see the bubbling puddles of steel that had  
once been vehicles, though the Tama was out of sight -- behind a low  
rise. Herb growled, his voice too deep and rough, sounding as though  
he _were_ the Dragon, not a man, "I will listen. I will heed your  
words, Ranma, but know that my anger will be satisfied!"  
  
Ranma nodded, brushing past Herb to approach the single  
crystal spire containing the flaxen-haired Amazon in front of the  
wreckage that had been his own tomb. Herb bristled, and Ranko rushed  
to catch up to the pair. She was shocked -- so carefully had Herb  
concealed it behind the hulking form of the Dragon of flames. And so  
well protected, it had not even melted in the slightest.  
  
Ranko licked her lips worriedly, as she came to a halt.  
Ranma studied the woman, frowning. Herb simply clenched his fists  
and fumed, his body too hot to approach as closely as he would have  
liked. Ranko stared into the crystal enclosing the woman, eyes wide  
in surprise and betrayal. What had she missed? How had she come to  
be frozen so?  
  
"I think that I can... if we can take her to Japan, and keep  
her frozen, my father has a lab--" She cut off suddenly, as Ranma  
raised a hand to silence her.  
  
"No," she said calmly. "This can be fixed easily. Herb, you  
overreact. Thaw her quickly -- she knows the Soul of Ice."  
  
Herb's eyes flew wide, and he transformed instantly from  
enraged warrior to shocked little boy. Ranko shook her head, too  
confused and unbalanced by the day's events to be further amazed. As  
Herb's hand came into trembling contact with the crystal of ice, it  
melted, not slowly, but suddenly, the entire structure rippling once  
and then falling away like jelly.  
  
The man caught her, sinking to his -- suddenly HER knees.  
Herb was cursed just like Ranma, and in the cold... She grimaced,  
and gave off a sudden wave of heat, leaving the moisture in her  
clothes to warm suddenly, before steaming away.  
  
Kneeling where he was, the woman across his knees held  
tenderly to his chest, he rocked back slowly. "You're okay?" he  
asked worriedly.  
  
The woman stirred slowly, sleepily, and shivered. Ranko  
shook her head. She'd raised the dead and watched Dragons fight.  
This was merely another impossible thing to add to the list.  
"Airen... you're warm tonight..."  
  
And before Ranko, staring in confusion, and Ranma who was  
neither smiling nor frowning, Herb, onetime Prince of the Musk,  
current Chairman of the Council of the Qinghai Confederacy, wept. As  
if magic, when his tears struck the woman in his arms, she changed;  
her glamour dissolved. Flaxen locks gave way to violet strands, as  
eyes and face shifted from a faintly Nordic woman of the ice to a  
woman Ranko remembered from her own childhood.  
  
"Shan Pu," Ranma intoned gravely. "We meet again."  
  
***  
  
Ensconced within the icy tomb of Ranma's desecrated lover,  
Shia Hai backed away from the narrow entrance. More of a defile than  
anything else, she realized sardonically.  
  
"How appropriate," she muttered, pulling her scarf across  
the lower half of her face, and dashing back to the center. She slid  
to a halt, crampons in her shoes biting into the ice and arresting  
her before she could stumble into the still-untouched bowl of ice  
that contained what was left of Akane.  
  
Hands trembling, she gathered the two staves from the  
ground. If anything could stop what she had seen, it would be those  
weapons.  
  
The breeze about her picked up, and her communicator spoke  
once more, "... that's not the way," before falling dead silent.  
  
Biting off a curse, she flipped on the tactical displays for  
her goggles, only to find them dead.  
  
***  
  
Ranko watched curiously, as the Amazon rose to her feet,  
standing proudly, while Herb fretted over her, layers of heat  
washing off of him in tangible waves. "I am well," she said stiffly,  
unable to meet Ranma's calm, cool gaze. "It is... good to see you  
again."  
  
Ranma nodded wordlessly, and reached a hand towards Shan Pu  
in friendship. "The circumstances are strange," she allowed.  
  
Tentatively, as though she was afraid of being bitten, the  
Amazon extended a hand to meet Ranma's. The redhead took her hand  
and smiled warmly, the ice and cold once again fading. "If only we  
could have met under friendlier skies," the Amazon said.  
  
Ranma nodded, drawing back her hand and retreating into her  
icy shell again. "Time grows short," she said, turning away from the  
pair and staring towards the memorial that held Akane. Ranko  
swallowed nervously, wondering how thorough Shia Hai's men had been.  
Perhaps... perhaps it wasn't too late.  
  
If nothing else, she could hold hope. She followed behind  
Ranma worriedly, marveling for a moment that a woman -- or any being  
at all -- could be so short and yet have such a profound _presence_.  
  
Ranko remained silent, glancing behind to see Shan Pu and  
Herb both following nearly at her heels. Herb studied her, and  
nodded in approval, before looking away.  
  
His wife offered Ranko a friendly smile, dashing forward a  
few steps and catching up with the girl. "Ranko," she began, slowing  
as she drew near. "You are very brave... and very smart. We're both  
sorry that you've had to get involved in this, but--"  
  
"STOP right there!" a voice cried out, interrupting the  
woman.  
  
Shan Pu dropped into a tight, ready stance, protectively  
gliding in front of Ranko. Only a few meters ahead, Ranma stood, at  
her coldest and calmest yet. Shia Hai stood at the end of the  
defile, a handgun shaking in her grip.  
  
Ranma merely raised an eyebrow, and Shia Hai threw the gun  
down, tugging the kinjakan from her belt. "What are you doing?" the  
redhead asked blandly, her voice completely lacking inflection.  
  
Herb growled, less moving and more flowing to Ranma's side,  
the nearby ice melting at his passage, and reforming as he stopped,  
both of them staring past Shia Hai to the crater behind her. Shia  
Hai twitched nervously, holding the kinjakan before her like a  
talisman to ward off the pair. "I can't let you come any closer, I  
don't know what you're planning, but this... this place is  
dangerous. It's too dangerous to let you bring her back! She has no  
control..." the woman trailed off lamely, as Ranma and Herb  
exchanged an almost bemused glance.  
  
"I... I'm... It's my job to stop you," she protested weakly.  
"I can't let you risk reviving the Ice-Wraith."  
  
Ranma actually smiled, not a friendly, amused smile, but the  
mechanical smile of one whom is merely being polite in their chosen  
duty. "Move," Ranma whispered, one hand slowly rising to tap Shia  
Hai's chest gently. A point of purest blue leapt from her finger,  
like a spark, and the kinjakan whined fiercely, growing warm too  
late, as Ranma drew her hand back.  
  
The bluish spark fizzled for a moment, and Shia Hai stared  
dumbly at her chest. Heavy-duty thermal gear cracked sharply, and  
Herb casually stepped forward, landing a single brutal kick to the  
woman's chest. She flew backwards, slamming into an icy spire as the  
front of her armor fell away like dried autumn leaves, striking the  
ice below and crumbling into frigid dust.  
  
"Hmm," Ranma mused aloud. "You saved her life."  
  
Herb sneered at the woman, pinned against a column of fallen  
ice, her protection gone. "She attempted to hurt my _wife_, Ranma.  
She did _that_ to your lover," he growled, pointing. "Death is too  
good for her. Eternity in the summerlands, tended by my people. And  
it will not be the kindest tending." He concluded by spitting, being  
careful to not desecrate the tomb below.  
  
"We will let _her_ decide," Ranma said, crouching at the lip  
of the crater and peering downward. "She is still here, in spirit.  
Her form survives in broken pieces."  
  
The tall man's fire faded, as he peered into the crater to  
look. "What are you speaking of?" he asked, confused.  
  
"The spark is extinguished. I can repair the shell,  
perhaps... but I cannot replace that vital spark." Ranma's eyes  
narrowed, and he asked Herb, "Do you know where such a spark could  
come from?"  
  
The man hedged, nodding. "Indeed, though it would only hold  
for a month, perhaps more... but not longer."  
  
Ranma smiled, and Ranko's heart caught. Judging by the way  
that Shan Pu grabbed her wrist, the Amazon was also caught by the  
beauty of the moment. "Then let us work."  
  
***  
  
The computer chirped loudly, jerking Keitaro out of his  
meditative trance. The communications link had been shut down when  
Ranko entered the monument -- he wasn't about to impinge on the  
reunion that would be going on in there.  
  
His father had never known them personally -- any of them.  
But that didn't lower Keitaro's respect any. Family was family.  
  
He thumbed the engines online, watching the last of the  
guards stagger away. The display indicated numerous vehicles flying  
away, all of them quickly. It was the kind of thing that Keitaro  
recognized instantly, and took only a moment for him to take into  
account.  
  
"They've had about an hour, I hope that's long enough to say  
goodbye!"  
  
Grabbing the steering yoke firmly, he stomped on the  
accelerator, making the skimmer jump nearly twenty meters into the  
air before he kicked the levs online, cruising downwards at an angle  
to skim across the snowy ridge sheltering the Tama from the  
compound. Between the compound and the monument lay a vast swath of  
smoking Earth, slowly being snowed over.  
  
"More idiots," he muttered, eyeing his navigational charts.  
The Tama spun sharply, skidding to a halt a half-meter over the thin  
layer of snow before thumping heavily to rest near the passage into  
the monument.  
  
He left the engines running as he opened the hatch, not  
bothering with his cold-weather gear. He wasn't planning on being  
away from the ship long. "Yo!" he yelled, backpedaling as he nearly  
slammed into a well-built Amazon, shielding Ranko from him. "Boss-  
man! We got incoming. Unless you think you can do Saffy's little,  
'nuclear fire don't hurt me none!' trick, I highly recommend that we  
relocate our asses about fourteen miles ta the north, and fast."  
  
"I'm busy," a voice answered quietly, leaving Keitaro to  
blink.  
  
"Uh, right." He turned to look at the woman before him. "Oh,  
heya, Boss-lady. Anything we can do to speed things up?"  
  
Shan Pu quirked her lips in a smile. "You're a very special  
kind of idiot, aren't you, Keitaro?"  
  
He grinned, flashing his father's card at her. "Yeah, the  
best. I hear that I take after my dad."  
  
Behind the Amazon, Ranko stared, jaw agape. "You're a spy?"  
she asked, confused and hurt.  
  
"Oh, yeah, well, ya know how it goes. Jus' a little." He  
pocketed the card absently, spinning his pipe from the same pocket  
to clench it in his teeth.  
  
Shan Pu cleared her throat loudly, shooting Keitaro a  
reprimanding glance. "Agent Koara is one of our best."  
  
He nodded absently, glancing over his shoulder. "Thanks for  
the ego-boost, Boss-lady, but we still got an incoming somethin'  
that's making everythin' the Tama can see head for high-groun', if'n  
ya know what I mean?"  
  
The Amazon nodded in understanding. "I see. Tendo, you're  
well advised to get aboard the Tama and wait with Koara there. If  
Herb and Ranma cannot finish what they're doing here in time..." She  
hesitated, grimacing. Waving a finger at Keitaro in warning, she  
bounded away, bouncing upward, and returned a half-moment later, the  
chilled and shivering form of Shia Hai in her hands. "Take this with  
you, too. We'd like to retrieve the kinjakan and gekkaja."  
  
Making a face, Keitaro tossed the prone woman over one  
shoulder, and trudged towards the Tama. "Miss Tendo," he called back  
over his shoulder. "I'd like if'n you could help me get ready."  
  
She followed hesitantly, as Keitaro tossed the woman  
carelessly into one of the empty crew compartments. He disarmed her,  
taking the gekkaja and the kinjakan and stowing them in the front  
cabin. Sealing the main hatch for the moment, he took a quick  
inventory of the ships vitals.  
  
"Too much weight," he said sadly.  
  
Ranko shook herself out of a daze, and turned to look at  
Keitaro. "What do you mean?" she asked, confused.  
  
He pointed towards the door furthest to the rear of the  
skimmer. "Too much cargo, if we wanna get faster, we should lose the  
heavy stuff."  
  
Nodding in understanding, Ranko dashed to the cargo section  
of the craft. Keitaro watched her go, and shook his head, trailing  
after her. There was a good chance they wouldn't be getting home at  
all, if the Dragons couldn't hurry. "Well, Dad, you've helped me out  
so far, maybe just one more time for the day? I promise I'll talk to  
Mom..."  
  
Ranko looked back from sliding a crate towards the rear  
hatch of the Tama curiously. "Keitaro?"  
  
"Nothin'," he assured her, opening the ramp, and rolling the  
crate into the snow. "Jus' thinkin' about my mom."  
  
The girl nodded, wincing as millions of dollars of fragile  
equipment crashed to the ground below the craft. "What was your  
mother like?" she asked, moving on to the next crate.  
  
"Oh," Keitaro sighed, helping Ranko move the heavier box, "I  
dunno. Excitable. Really in love with my father. Kinda tragic,  
that."  
  
"Why is that?"  
  
"Oh, well..." He paused, grunting to raise the crate over  
the lip of the ramp, and sending it tumbling to the snow below.  
"Eh... that's kinda hard to explain. Maybe some other time. My mom  
was special, though."  
  
Ranko nodded in understanding, sliding yet another crate  
forward, this one lighter than the last. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Heh, well," Keitaro shoved the box after the last,  
grimacing. "Anyway, Mom was special 'cause she was fey 'fore the  
Fall. Long before." He paused, eyeing Ranko frankly. "She's a mess  
some days, pining over Dad, afraid to go outside because people'll  
stop believin' in her..."  
  
The girl shivered. "That can't... happen, can it?"  
  
"Don't think so," he said, shrugging. "We can live in  
cities, and I ain't never seen or heard of it happening, so... I  
dunno. I think really she's just sayin' that's the reason, and it's  
Dad that makes her sad, but either way..." he trailed off, shoving  
another crate off the craft. "Either way," he resumed, "I want to  
see Ranma back safe, an' then maybe we can look for the other  
dragons."  
  
"What happens then?"  
  
"Well," Keitaro temporized, frowning, "best as I can figure,  
we get to be real. Without just being theory, or 'delusion'. You  
ever get tired of growin' up, and people telling you that medicine  
can fix 'thinking you can do things that are obviously not possible  
within the realm of physics'? 'Cause I did. I got real tired, and...  
when people don't believe, it stings."  
  
Ranko nodded slowly, awed. The girl had forgotten to aid in  
the removal of the boxes, but Keitaro couldn't fault her, and  
preferred to keep his own hands busy while he talked.  
  
"Anyway," he continued, "Mom was real nice about the entire  
thing, and real supportive, but sometimes -- and I love her dearly,  
don' get me wrong -- she could be a real brat." He shook his head,  
tipping one last crate over the ramp. "Anyway, I could always do  
some stuff when I was little, and learned more as I got older. Mom,  
she used machines, me, I started using the pipe when people started  
looking funny, and when I bought her, the Tama."  
  
The computer chirped at him, and Keitaro snorted. Ranko  
stifled a giggle, hitting the button to close the rear hatch, as  
Keitaro jogged amidships.  
  
The side hatch opened at Keitaro's touch, and he ran past  
Ranko, brushing against her in the narrow corridor. "Oops," he  
allowed. "I'm gonna get to pilotin', close the door when everyone's  
in."  
  
The girl yelped something as he squeezed past, and mumbled  
something that sounded like a confirmation.  
  
***  
  
The ball of contradictions wrapped in confusion and topped  
with an accent that was sometimes there, and sometimes not slid  
smoothly against her, and then beyond, dashing towards the pilot's  
compartment. She shook herself out of her stupor, and stepped into  
an alcove, monitoring the four that passed her. Not thinking about  
things, and only aware of the Tama's rumbling engines lifting it  
upwards, she slammed her palm against the emergency seal, which in  
turn sealed the hatch with a jarring finality.  
  
Not taking any more time, she gestured vaguely towards a  
side-compartment, and dashed past the small crowd in the larger  
corridor to take a seat next to Keitaro. He was perched in the  
pilot's seat, wrestling with a sudden wind. "Things'r gettin'  
nasty," he muttered, as Ranko belted herself into the navigator's  
chair next to him, and called up the tactical relays.  
  
It only took a moment to tie the Tama's sensors into the  
private satellite she had monitoring the situation. Keitaro glanced  
at her sharply, but she only offered him a placating smile before  
turning back to her frantic typing at the terminal before her. A  
fifty-two-character code was transmitted upwards, and the satellite  
above came to life, sensors and communications gear activating to  
provide Ranko with all the information she could possibly need.  
  
Using the connection to link to Tendo Heavy's mainframe, she  
directed a few simple queries to the main computer, before focusing  
her attention to the extended tactical information that the  
satellite offered. She frowned, linking it into the Tama's own  
readings, granting Keitaro's sensor suite the benefit of Tendo  
Heavy's most advanced satellite.  
  
And there, about three hundred kilometers away, but closing  
quickly, was whatever NR Xinjiang had chosen to fire at them. "Oh  
kami," she breathed, as the computer chirped at the mainframe's  
analysis of the object. "It's a nuke..."  
  
Silence filled the cabin after her announcement. She looked  
worriedly over her shoulder to see that Herb, Shan Pu, and Ranma.  
The three regarded Keitaro, Herb in fury, Shan Pu with a face pale  
and drawn of blood, and Ranma with a maddeningly calm coldness.  
  
"What can be done?" she asked after a second, prompting Herb  
and Shan Pu to look at her.  
  
"Well," Keitaro said, pointing to a spot on the map, "we can  
set down here, and pray. The Tama ain't gonna carry us clear of that  
unless it's a dud. You got a good idea?"  
  
"Pray?" Ranko asked unhappily. "I thought you were full of  
good ideas and clever plans to escape."  
  
"Just my Dad's luck, and his help when he's willing," the  
man muttered sourly.  
  
"Can he help us now?" Ranko pleaded.  
  
He frowned, glancing at her. "I can ask," he said  
uncertainly. "But I don't know..."  
  
"It is worth attempting, if no other plans will save us."  
Ranma straightened suddenly, maintaining her balance despite the  
turbulence. Cold demeanor melting again, she asked, "And, uh, can I  
get some hot water?"  
  
Ranko actually snickered for a moment, before reminding  
herself of the loss that Ranma must have faced. "Yes," she said,  
remotely notifying the mainframe to keep the technical data updated.  
"It'll take a minute," she warned, crossing the floor by the aid of  
handrails, and working her way towards the galley.  
  
The galley sat just behind the command deck, and Ranma  
followed her into the chamber. A small kitchenette was built into  
one wall, and another contained a snug fitting breakfast nook. Ranma  
took a seat in the nook, glancing about the small collection of  
posters curiously.  
  
A great many of them featured artifacts from what Ranko had  
always assumed was Koara's homeland, though that was obviously not  
the case, since he had been raised in Japan. 'Out' was simply his  
way of stating that even if he was from nearby in a geographic  
sense, he bore little true relation to his neighbors.  
  
Ranko silently padded over to the coffee machine, surprised  
to find the pitcher already full. She eyed it hesitantly, then added  
some cold water to the mix before handing it to Ranma. The redhead  
nodded her thanks, and poured the jug over her head.  
  
Ranko could barely restrain her excitement. It may have been  
a mundane pleasure, but she dearly wanted to meet her uncle in his  
proper form. She watched raptly, as red hair became black, the swell  
of a bosom became a fine and well-muscled chest, curved hips  
shifted, become more masculine, so that in the space of less than a  
heartbeat, her uncle was once more male.  
  
He set the pitcher down, just in time to catch Ranko  
barreling into him. "Uncle Ranma!" she called out, sobbing.  
"Finally! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry about Auntie Akane!"  
  
Ranma awkwardly patted the girl on the back comfortingly.  
"Don't, ah, worry. She's sleeping now, but she should be fine once  
we get her to Jusenkyou."  
  
Ranko broke away from her uncle, mouth hanging open in  
shock. "Are you serious?" she asked slowly, not able to believe his  
words.  
  
He nodded, as the girl took a seat across the table from  
him. "How?" she asked, confused.  
  
Speaking slowly, he looked away from her, studying his own  
hand intently. Not meeting her gaze, he spoke softly, his voice  
oddly resonant, "Our bodies are mostly water. I can rearrange that,  
a little." He sighed, shaking his head. "There was not enough of her  
left for me to put back in her own shape, so I used what was at  
hand."  
  
"What?" Ranko didn't understand. Had he rebuilt Akane,  
somehow?  
  
"I recreated her physical form using my own as a map. We  
need to take her to Jusenkyou. There's a cursed pool there with the  
image of her true form. If we can take her there, then the risk of  
her spirit burning out will destroyed."  
  
Ranko absorbed that slowly. "Wow," she managed, unsure of  
what else she could say.  
  
The boy across from her merely nodded, running his hand  
through his hair. "So," he managed, tearing his eyes away from the  
table, and looking about the cabin again. "How long has it been?"  
  
Ranko giggled, shaking her head. "I guess there's a lot of  
catching up to do, huh? You've been asleep for more than twenty  
years..."  
  
***  
  
Keitaro set the skimmer down in the shadow of a rocky shelf,  
scant protection that it would be able to provide. Flurries of snow  
outside were flung upwards as the craft came to rest uneasily, gyros  
and stabilizers emerging to hold it steady.  
  
"Okay," he announced over the intercom. "We're here, and  
about six miles away from impact. And, uh, three minutes." He stood,  
turning to face Herb and Shan Pu in dismay. "We coulda gone faster,  
but the damn NR Xinjiang guards beat up on the Tama's propulsion.  
We're just plain not gonna make it, sorry."  
  
Herb shook his head, standing and releasing his wife's hand  
as he did so. "We won't give up," he announced.  
  
Another voice joined his from the doorway, smooth and calm,  
but obviously male. "No, we won't. Tell me, who are you?"  
  
Keitaro felt an unmistakable shiver ascend from his heels,  
climbing his legs to rise up his spine on its way towards his scalp.  
Before it could end, he stepped forward, between Herb and Shan Pu,  
and dropped to one knee, head bowed. "Beggin' your pardon, Boss-man,  
Boss-lady, but like I tol' you and Saffy, my loyalties are to this  
guy."  
  
A bemused laugh echoed across the room. "You still haven't  
told me your name yet."  
  
Keitaro fumbled at his pocket, and produced his father's  
card. "My name is Keitaro Koara, and I be the Fool for the King o'  
Cups." Ranma accepted the card, and a moment later reached down to  
lift Keitaro back to his feet.  
  
"That's nice. Now how can you help us stop what's about to  
destroy us?"  
  
Hedging nervously, Keitaro admitted, "Myself, I got the  
ability, ya see, but I don't have the power yet. Dad says it comes  
after a while, but, uh... I don't got what he says I need to get  
that power yet."  
  
Herb crossed his arms over his chest. "And Ranma gets a  
fool," he grumbled. "You're a fool indeed, if you cannot think to  
ask your master for power."  
  
Keitaro felt his face redden. "Uh, oh yeah, I knew that. I  
was jus' testin' ya." Coughing, he turned away. "So, uh, if you hang  
onto my father's card, an' gimmie your power, we can try an' stop  
it." His voice carried far more confidence than he felt.  
  
"Good enough," Ranma said suddenly. "Can we get on top of  
this before it starts? Shan Pu, please watch over Ranko and Akane.  
Herb..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Herb nodded, smirking. "Why not," he said cockily. "I've got  
anger to burn."  
  
Nervous, Keitaro motioned to the access hatch, and then  
began climbing the ladder. "Here's to hoping," he said, a quaver in  
his voice betraying him.  
  
Ranma chuckled, ascending the ladder behind Keitaro, and  
Herb smirked at them both, rising to stand atop the Tama without  
using the ladder. Snorting, the King of Cups motioned Keitaro to  
prepare.  
  
He did so, drawing his pipe from his pocket, and spinning it  
experimentally across his fingers. "Here goes nothin', and a whole  
buttload of it," he muttered.  
  
Ranma laughed genially, placing a hand on Keitaro's left  
shoulder, as the man held the pipe before him, bowl pointed away,  
stem facing east. Herb placed his hand on Keitaro's right shoulder.  
  
"In the name of my father," Keitaro said unsteadily, before  
halting suddenly. That wouldn't work.  
  
He cleared his throat loudly, seeing a glittering, sparkling  
point of light break through the heavens, streaking downwards to the  
south. "In the name of the King of Cups," he intoned, feeling the  
bidden power course through him, from Ranma, and again from Herb,  
though more weakly. "I seal this site, here and now!"  
  
Gold and amber, blue and red, chains of light erupted  
outward from the bowl, cracking it, then setting it alight in a wash  
of primal color and energy. The colors bled through the pipe,  
sundering it, leaving only dust, and the light coming from Keitaro's  
hands, and himself.  
  
The chains wrapped around a nothingness, spinning into a  
disk twice the size of the Tama, and then twice that, a wall of  
power between themselves and the nuclear strike. Runes, his father's  
symbol, flared to life on the disk, bathing the entire area in a  
saturated... safe... light.  
  
Ranma's grip never faltered, nor did Herb's, until there was  
a flash of light, and then... nothing.  
  
***  
  
She woke with a start.  
  
Moonlight, a mirror, cloth in the window rippling softly,  
and the music of a faint flute.  
  
Her eyes found her hands, wrapped in bandages, already loose  
and falling away. Lower, a soft-furred blanket, and beneath that, a  
thick cotton shift protecting her body from the cold.  
  
The room was warm, and a sharp crackling noise alerted her  
to a fire behind her, low and dying, but the coals still glowing.  
  
Her hands rose, almost of their own accord, and tugged her  
bandages off. Swinging her feet over the floor, she was pleased to  
notice a thick fur rug protecting her from the stone of the floor.  
  
Slowly, details began to filter in, as the door opened, and  
a boy stepped through, bearing a candle, and a tray, laden down with  
things that smelled pleasant. Her mouth watered, but she resisted  
the urge to simply chase after the food, managing to ask, "Who are  
you?"  
  
The boy smiled, setting the tray on a small bedside table,  
and taking a seat in a wicker and bamboo chair. "Well," he said,  
shaking his head, "that's a long story. They call me the King of  
Cups, here, and an ally to the Qinghai Confederacy. My name is  
Saotome Ranma."  
  
One particular detail clicked into place, as the rest  
sluggishly followed. "I love you," she informed him, still not  
touching the tray, loaded down as it was in a soup-bowl, and whole  
loaf of bread.  
  
His smile widened at hearing that. "It makes me more happy  
than you can ever know, that you tell me that," he said, wiping away  
a stray tear. "I've died and come back from the dead for you, and  
brought you back from the brink itself."  
  
She tackled him, less aware of moving, and more aware of  
lying atop him on the fur rug. She was keenly aware of the contact  
between them, more than anything else. "Yes," she said, her nose  
nearly touching his, her breath warm against his face, as his was  
warm against hers. "I love you more than anything, love you enough  
to come back, afterwards."  
  
He said nothing immediately, merely staring into her eyes  
joyously. "You remember, then?"  
  
"My name is Akane Tendo, and you're my fiancee," she said  
flatly. "What more do I need to know?"  
  
"Your curse?" he said worriedly.  
  
That brought her up short, and she stood, staring down at  
him in confusion. He rolled to his feet, and snapped his fingers,  
pointing towards the mirror in the room. "I'll get some hot and cold  
water for you," he whispered.  
  
She stared at herself in the mirror. Everything was as it  
should have been, as far as she could tell. "Being dead for years  
can probably throw a girl's perception off," she mused, more and  
more memories returning as the moments passed.  
  
Ranma returned a few heartbeats later, bearing a bucket and  
a kettle. He set both on the floor, as Akane watched him  
expectantly. "Now," he explained in a lecturing tone, "I did the  
best I could with what I had to work with. So you're in your cursed  
form at the moment. We, ah, we can lock it for you later, if you'd  
like. Um..." he trailed off, handing her the hot water kettle  
apologetically.  
  
She doused herself without hesitation, curious to see what  
would happen, and dropped the kettle in surprise as her fingers  
suddenly shifted proportion, and she lost a few centimeters of  
height. She stared at her reflection in the mirror in bemusement.  
"I'm you!" she exclaimed. "I've got your curse... Why?"  
  
"Ah, I'm really sorry... I just did the best I could with  
what I had to work with," he apologized worriedly.  
  
She stared at herself in the mirror, her reflection so  
familiar, and at the same time, oddly alien. "I can live with this,"  
she said, smirking. "If this is the worst of it -- you always said  
that this was the body you preferred anyway."  
  
His further protests were silenced by an exuberant kiss.  
  
***  
  
Atop the library that the union of the Joketsuzoku and Musk  
tribes had forged, Keitaro Koara leaned against the central stone  
spire, playing his flute softly. He let the last few notes trail  
off, eyeing the stone guest cottages that sat to one side, set off  
pleasantly by the deceptively friendly glow of moonlight off of  
Jusenkyou's springs.  
  
At his side, Herb and Saffron both gazed up at the stars,  
richer and brighter in the lands of Qinghai Confederacy, thanks in  
theory to the lessened light pollution. "You've done well," Saffron  
remarked, his feathers rustling slightly in a faint breeze.  
  
Herb nodded, and added, "Indeed. For a time, I thought all  
was lost."  
  
Keitaro flushed nervously, twirling the flute in the manner  
of his favored pipe. "It wasn' me," he admitted. "I jus' gave it  
structure. Ranma and Herb did it, not me."  
  
"Good enough," Saffron mumbled. "It pleases me to see that  
no harm has fallen you, or Ranma." He paused, considering, and  
added, "That you protected Miss Tendo speaks well of you, but..."  
  
Herb picked up where Saffron trailed off, "You did promise  
that you would serve me, Keitaro. And I can forgive you for choosing  
to serve Ranma, but it does not please me."  
  
"Hey," Keitaro grumbled, "no one's perfect. I thought I was  
supposed ta follow you, but when Ranma talked in the Tama, that tol'  
me that he was the one I hadda follow."  
  
Herb nodded, still gazing at the stars. "Perhaps," he  
allowed. "I had grown used to having an ally as useful as yourself.  
Perhaps it is merely bitterness speaking."  
  
Saffron nodded, rising to his feet and stretching his wings  
out. "Indeed," he mumbled. "It is not supremely important, but the  
arrival of the King of Cups bodes well."  
  
Turning jovial once more, Keitaro grinned, commenting, "And  
boy am I glad _that's_ over!"  
  
Saffron laughed, folding his wings in, and shaking his head.  
"Not over, young one, not yet. There are still two pillars out  
there, and then there's the matter of Shia Hai."  
  
----------------------------  
Author's notes:  
  
And that's the end of act four. What to conclude the compass  
points with? A journey to the center, of course... 


	9. Act V: Song of the Void

Song of the Void  
  
Compass Points: Act V  
  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction  
  
Disclaimer: Takahashi's and Akamatsu's paints, my easel.  
  
Notes: Don't think about something this silly too hard.  
That's not the point, and you should know that by now. ;)  
-------------------------------------  
  
[Earth]  
  
He had never considered himself a man of deep thought, and  
outside of combat and martial arts, he felt that his mind was slow  
about many things. But of late, something had nagged at him, pulling  
at stray thoughts and worrying at them in the manner of a young,  
untrained puppy.  
  
His eyes narrowed, and his head bowed slightly allowing him  
to study the grill before him. His wife was gone at the moment, and  
the day was slow. Slow enough that he could stare at the grill and  
lose himself in thought, should the fancy strike him.  
  
But he didn't really know what to think of. He supposed that  
it meant he was bored. But he wasn't much given to daydreaming,  
either. What need did he have for daydreams? He found his life of  
simple work and simpler pleasures enough.  
  
A hobby, he decided. He needed a hobby.  
  
He frowned at that thought. Aside from martial arts, all he  
truly did with his free time was tell stories to his children. They  
seemed to enjoy his tales, as did his wife. Yet....  
  
Eyes growing distant for a moment, he allowed his senses to  
drift, casting about him through the earth, stone, and concrete that  
lay beneath and around him. His wife was safe, he could feel her  
presence a mile and more distant, walking with... with Nabiki. Of  
course. Headed to school to pick up their children.  
  
He sighed, shrugging his shoulders uncomfortably as a  
pensive spike of apprehension crawled across his spine.  
  
***  
  
[Wind]  
  
He imagined that his lack of confinement within mental rigid  
structures was the product of the knowledge that was bestowed upon  
him. Spinning over the lake, he gestured, massive gusts and eddies  
of wind slashing effortlessly through the waves, an ethereal Dragon  
of cloud and mist parting the waters and uncovering the creature  
below the waves.  
  
A thing of light and shadow -- structure frail and empty.  
"You do not exist," he remarked.  
  
The creature -- the Orochi -- writhed weakly, fading through  
the talons of the Dragon that hovered behind him as he floated,  
melting into an ethereal mist.  
  
"Hmm," he mused, watching as the massive creature faded to  
nothing. "Unacceptable. This will need to be changed."  
  
Whirling once more, his Dragon faded to nothing, and he  
folded his arms at his side, soaring high and away. Far, far to the  
west, towards the Gate of Death, the resting place of the sun, he  
sensed his brothers. Two of them. But closer, so much closer...  
another.  
  
"Yes," he said softly, smiling. "As I am the most elevated,  
you will be the most base. Earth."  
  
***  
  
[Fire]  
  
He lay on the bed, staring at the stone ceiling above him.  
He felt oddly pensive, though he knew well enough that he was  
happiest waking the way he had. His wife remained asleep -- drained  
from the ordeals of the last few days, and contented to rest for the  
moment.  
  
Tired, he knew in a clinical sense, because the journey so  
far from Qinghai amid lands where his own kind were persecuted and  
killed drained her. Content because his presence restored her.  
  
His lips curved upward in a smile, and he was unable to  
resist the impulse to push his wife's hair our of her eyes, brushing  
it gently back, and mussing it in the process. "Nnng," she noised,  
screwing her eyes shut and pressing her face into his chest.  
  
She squirmed about for a moment before waking, sitting up  
slowly, and yawning. He propped himself up on one elbow and studied  
her as she yawned, clad as she was in a thick flannel shift. Done,  
she squinted at him blearily, and mumbled, "Morning, Airen."  
  
Smiling, he sat up, nodding to her. "Are you well rested?"  
he asked.  
  
"Yes," she said fingers absently raking through her hair and  
setting it back to some semblance of order. Cocking her head to one  
side suddenly, she asked, "Do you think I would look better with  
blonde hair?"  
  
His face betrayed his confusion as he shook his head,  
answering, "I like you best as you. Why?"  
  
She giggled, leaning forward to plant a kiss on his lips  
before pulling away, eyes glittering with subdued joy. "I'm going to  
take a bath," she announced. "Then we will have breakfast with Ranma  
and Akane."  
  
"Of course," he warned quietly, "no other woman could tell a  
Dragon what to do."  
  
"Then I suppose I'll have to teach Akane," she mused,  
grabbing a robe as she headed towards the door and shooting him a  
sly wink.  
  
***  
  
[Visitor From on High]  
  
Ukyou stopped, three steps short of the corner that would  
allow her to be seen by her children from the school. "Nabiki?" she  
asked quietly, turning to regard the woman. "You've been very quiet,  
and you don't usually just visit with me to watch me pick up my  
children. You have a flitter, after all. What's troubling you?"  
  
The other woman winced, looking away. She heaved an  
uncomfortable sigh, and said, "Of course you'd be the one to see  
through me. Ukyou... It's about Ranko."  
  
Which, as Ukyou knew, would mean it was about Ranma, too.  
"Oh?" she asked worriedly. She'd harbored both hopes _and_ fears  
about the project, as little as she understood it.  
  
"Um...." Nabiki turned around, expression dogged and  
worried. "Ukyou," she said plainly, "Ranko hasn't been heard from in  
a while, and, well.... Have you heard what happened in Xinjiang  
recently?"  
  
Ukyou struggled to remember, feeling vaguely embarrassed  
that she hadn't paid closer attention. "I'm afraid not," she  
admitted.  
  
"They said that it was an accident," Nabiki murmured. "But  
nuclear missiles aren't accidents."  
  
"Oh," Ukyou said in a quiet voice. "Was it at around... six  
o'clock three days ago?"  
  
Nabiki whipped her head around to stare at Ukyou and  
narrowed her eyes. "How do you know that?" she asked apprehensively.  
  
"Ryu-chan got really sick then," she said blandly. "I can  
tell you what time it is, or how long something takes -- down to a  
second, if I have to. Ryu-chan can sense when things touch the  
Earth. We all have our powers."  
  
"Oh," Nabiki said in a small voice. "Of course. You're Fey.  
Just like Tofu-chan."  
  
"Ranko, Nabiki?" Ukyou reminded the woman. "My children lose  
their patience in about eight minutes, and start to walk home on  
their own."  
  
Nabiki sighed, shaking her head. "I think Ranko may be  
dead," she said in a quiet voice. "I... Tofu-chan says not to give  
up hope, but if they did that... Ranma couldn't stop that. Ranma and  
Akane... and Ranko...." Heaving an unsteady breath, she whimpered,  
"I should never have let her go!"  
  
Ukyou winced, regretting the harshness she had addressed  
Nabiki with. "Nabiki..." she said quietly. "I... I don't... don't  
give up hope. Not yet. Maybe she couldn't save Ranma and Akane...."  
Something about that struck her false, though she couldn't put a  
finger one what -- or why. "Ranko might still be okay."  
  
Opening her mouth to reply, Nabiki looked up sharply,  
staring in shock as a figure shot through the space over their  
heads, easily passing above the nearby buildings, then streaked  
sharply downward. Both women ran full bore around the corner towards  
the school building.  
  
Nabiki skidded to a halt, eyes wide, as Ukyou pulled the  
massive spatula that the woman could have _sworn_ Ukyou had left at  
home from over her shoulder, charging towards her children  
determinedly. Both Makoto and Tomoko stared, Tomoko hiding behind  
Makoto, and Makoto holding her hands up, as though she intended to  
fend off the man before them, that Ukyou was charging towards.  
  
The man that was floating a good half-meter above the  
ground, suffused with a faint nimbus of glowing white light. The  
light wavered and rippled, and so too did the air about him. Ukyou  
yelled something incoherent, swinging the spatula down over in a  
hard, overhand arc. The man cocked his head to one side, deflecting  
the attack in an errant manner, with one hand.  
  
Makoto yelped, and jumped back as Ukyou circled around the  
man, standing before her daughters protectively. "Who are you?" she  
demanded of the man.  
  
He straightened up, folding his arms over his chest. "How  
remarkable," he mused. "Base he would be, assuredly, but enough so  
to have children? Remarkable."  
  
Ukyou growled, eyes flickering briefly to Nabiki, then back  
to the man. Stubbornly, she warned, "My husband can be here in...  
in... in two minutes and three seconds, if someone calls him right  
now."  
  
"Is that so?" the man asked, shooting a glance at Nabiki so  
laden with contempt that she dropped the communicator she had  
retrieved at Ukyou's words. "He can be here even sooner, I think."  
Smiling sardonically, he unfolded his arms, reaching a hand towards  
the children. Makoto and Tomoko backed away at Ukyou's gesture,  
retreating into the schoolyard. As his gesture, a violent whirlwind  
erupted around him, wind biting into the ground at his feet and  
spiraling upward, traced out only by stray dust and leaves.  
  
His arms slowly rose, and the column of wind about him  
increased its speed, whirling over his head and into the sky. Nabiki  
felt an impulse she couldn't quite identify, and took three steps to  
her left, feet moving nearly of their own accord. The giant column  
of air slowly curved, then vanished, one heartbeat there, and the  
next, gone.  
  
Above the man, mammoth wings beating slowly, nearly lazily  
in the air, a monstrous Dragon of smoke and mist hovered, head  
swinging low to pass the man, and sniff at Ukyou, tail lashing. The  
lashing tower struck a power relay, and Nabiki shielded her eyes  
from the trail of sparks as the tower collapsed, crashing into the  
ground only two steps to her right.  
  
Rearing back, the Dragon made a soft, quiet noise, and  
suddenly lunged its head towards Ukyou where she stood defiantly.  
  
***  
  
[Brothers]  
  
"Aoyama?" Keitaro asked dumbly. "What the hell'r you doin'  
here?"  
  
Ranko cocked her head to one side, heels kicking absently at  
the rim of the stone fountain as she sat on its lip. Keitaro had  
been relating some other mission he had been on, though she hadn't  
been paying much attention to the details as much as she was  
watching him, and thusly neither of them noticed a man of about  
Keitaro's own age approach.  
  
The man bore a strong resemblance to Keitaro, too, though  
his dress was entirely different. He wore the standard garb of a  
swordsman in a long passed age, and too, a blade was at his side.  
The grace he carried himself with warned that he more than likely  
knew how to use the sword, too. He smiled, inclining his head to  
Keitaro. "Koara," he returned levelly. "I come on my own business."  
  
"Dad told you to seek your destiny?" Keitaro asked,  
narrowing his eyes slightly. "Said you had to pick a college or find  
someone to serve, eh?"  
  
Aoyama's expression shifted to mild annoyance. "Close  
enough," he mumbled. "Mother said that I needed to make something of  
myself."  
  
"You failed the entrance exam," Keitaro returned bluntly.  
"Didn't ya?"  
  
"Ahem," Aoyama pronounced, not meeting Keitaro's eyes. "One  
failure, to your three."  
  
"Hey!" Keitaro protested. "I made somethin' o' myself. And  
you would'a failed as much as I did, if ya didn't spend all those  
years tryin' 'to find yourself'."  
  
"Do we have to settle this with a duel, Koara?"  
  
Keitaro glanced behind him, to where the Tama was resting,  
engine casings removed so he could work on it, then back to Aoyama.  
"The Tama's kinda not in shape for a duel, ya know."  
  
Ranko shook her head, trying to understand what was going  
on. "Wait," she protested. "You'd fight him with the skimmer? He's  
only got a sword!"  
  
"Yeah," Keitaro returned blithely, "and she's too damaged.  
Don' wan her to get messed up worse fightin' Aoyama."  
  
"I see you've learned a healthy respect for my skill,"  
Aoyama remarked, pleased.  
  
Continuing as though he hadn't heard Aoyama, Keitaro  
explained to Ranko, "I might dent the hull on 'is skull, or  
somethin'."  
  
Aoyama bristled for a moment, then grinned, shaking his  
head. "It's been too long," he said, throwing his arms apart.  
  
Keitaro chuckled, and embraced the man. "Good ta see you  
too, bro," he said, pounding Aoyama on the back.  
  
Ranko relaxed slightly. If it was merely two brothers joking  
around.... "Keitaro?" she asked quietly, as the men broke apart,  
grinning at each other -- with the exact same vacuous grin.  
  
"Yeah?" he responded, turning to Ranko, as Aoyama looked at  
her expectantly.  
  
"If he's your brother, why does he call you by your last  
name?" she inquired quietly. Not exactly a polite question, but she  
noticed that Keitaro generally didn't care much for a lot of  
civility anyway.  
  
"Oh," Keitaro answered slowly. "Well... that's... uh, he's  
only my half-brother, see... I don't got any brothers, just a bunch  
of half brothers...."  
  
Aoyama gave a pained sigh, looking away. "... And our  
mothers all named us 'Keitaro'," he finished quietly.  
  
Ranko boggled at that, then asked, "How many of you?"  
  
"Uh... lesse... there's me, Aoyama here, Konno, Otohime, and  
Maehara."  
  
She winced at that. "Five brothers named Keitaro? That must  
have been really confusing when you were children, growing up  
together."  
  
"Er..." Aoyama began, coughing. "We didn't... um... grow up  
together."  
  
"Dad is the wandering type," Keitaro Koara advised. "You'll  
prolly wanna call me 'Koara' til this lug gets out of here."  
  
"Um. Konno is here to," Aoyama noted.  
  
"Oh, great," Koara grumbled. "Watch your fingers if you  
shake his hand," he warned Ranko. "And after you watch them, count  
them to make sure they're all still there!"  
  
***  
  
[Sanctity of Blood]  
  
Makoto wanted to cower, to run away and flee, but Tomoko  
wasn't very good at running -- her little sister fell down too much.  
And she didn't want to abandon her mom, especially with the strange  
man being there and acting so funny.  
  
But then the man summoned wind, and scared her, and her mom  
started getting nervous. She didn't usually, but Makoto could  
recognize the telltale warnings that spoke of her mother's warnings.  
The spatula in her hands trembled slightly, but she refused to stand  
down.  
  
Which meant that her mom was fixedly defending her. The  
man's summoned wind gave way to a Dragon, and Makoto yelped, as it  
lunged, moving to strike her mother. Acting completely out of  
reflex, not remembering her parent's admonishments and warnings that  
she never misuse her powers, she lashed out, yelling, "Spirits of  
Earth and Cloud, heed my Call!" The words, as they always did, came  
from somewhere under her heart, not from her own mind. With that  
same familiarity, though strangely brighter then it had ever been  
before, a bolt of lightning surged from her fingertips, searing  
through the air, and passing only a hairsbreadth from her mother.  
But she knew well enough to not let the power strike her mother, and  
it arced smoothly around the woman, slamming into the gaping maw of  
the smoky Dragon, and passing through that to wreath the man behind  
the dragon in writhing bands of electricity.  
  
The Dragon froze, pulling back to look at the man in  
consternation. For his part, the man seemed dubiously impressed,  
though he made a single gesture with his hand, and the writhing  
force leapt from him to strike the ground. "Some small hint of your  
father's heritage?" he queried. "No matter. Call your father,  
child." The Dragon reared its head back, smoky eyes suffusing blue  
as it regarded her maliciously, preparing to strike again.  
  
Makoto's mother muttered something vile, and raised her  
spatula menacingly. "Don't you _dare_ threaten my children!" she  
warned.  
  
"No?" the man asked, frowning. "Perhaps, then, it should  
begin with you. Where is Earth?"  
  
"Daddy!" Tomoko shrieked, bawling loudly as the pressure of  
the situation grew too much. "Daddy! Come help us!"  
  
"Foolish mortals," the man grumbled, another of his errant  
hand gestures sending a torrent of power towards them. The Dragon  
reared its head back, and lunged again, unerringly aimed towards  
Tomoko -- though Makoto stood steadfast in her path, and her mother  
flung herself to interpose herself as well --  
  
But the Dragon's lunge was met with a fierce uppercut from  
her father.  
  
The Dragon reeled, the force of the blow knocking its head  
back, straining the creature's long, slender neck. The strange man  
hissed, raising one hand to his temple, then growled, as the Dragon  
recovered, eyeing him warily. "Ah," the man grumped. "You arrive.  
Let us be quit of this place -- our brothers and we have much work  
to do."  
  
Ryu spat, shifting his stance, and shook his head. "No way  
in hell," he said flatly. "I don't know what you think you're doing,  
and I don't really care -- you are not going to get away with  
threatening my family."  
  
Makoto sagged with relief, only having a moment before her  
mother pushed her backwards, giving her father room. "Daddy!" Tomoko  
squealed joyfully. "Daddy!"  
  
"Yeah," Ryu grunted. "I'm here," he continued, not looking  
back. "Now who the hell are you and what do you want?"  
  
"Base indeed," the man spat. "I am the King of Staves, as  
you are the King of Coins. Of course, you're probably still so slow  
you don't even know what you are."  
  
"Uh... I ain't a king that I know about," Ryu countered,  
eyeing the Dragon uneasily.  
  
"Quaint," the man remarked. "But far, far, far from useful.  
What do you call yourself, King of Coins?"  
  
"Kuonji Ryu," he answered warily.  
  
"Ryu... Dragon... how... fitting," the man remarked,  
grinning. "And there, we have our brother, the King of Cups,  
bearing... but it is of no import now. We must find them and  
complete our predecessor's task."  
  
"Anyone ever tell you that you talk crazy?" Ryu grumbled, "I  
don't have a clue what you're talking about. All I know is that you  
threatened my family, and I'm going to beat you within an inch of  
your life for it."  
  
"But you can't," the man notified him. "And you know it.  
There's a gap between us, as there should be."  
  
"Shut up!" Makoto's mother yelled, stepping forward. "Ryu-  
chan, kick his ass!"  
  
"He can't," the man sighed. "Are you all daft? It is natural  
for me to be above you for I contain the wisdom of Shen-Lung, but  
isn't this a bit... much?"  
  
"Ryu-chan! Why are you just standing there."  
  
Makoto's father growled, then turned his attention to his  
hands, fascinated by them for the moment. "I don't know," he  
confessed. "I... I can't do anything. I keep... I try and move to  
hit him, but I can't! It's like my body won't listen to me!"  
  
"Not without proper cause," the man noted drolly. "Observe."  
With that, he streaked from his position in the air, descending on  
Ukyou like a streak of lightning, while the Dragon behind him moved  
in tandem, sailing towards Makoto and her sister.  
  
Makoto grabbed Tomoko, and flung herself on top of her  
younger sister, intending to shield her with her own body if she had  
to. She wouldn't let the crazy man hurt her little sister!  
  
And yet, her precautions were unneeded. The man's strike was  
halted, his extended fist caught in her father's hand, as he stared  
at it in fascination. He had not moved to intercept the strike; he  
had simply stopped being in one place, and immediately started being  
in another. And the dragon too was held in check, the entire body of  
mist and smoke being rebuffed entirely by a massive plate of stone  
that had risen from nowhere at the last possible moment, looming  
over Makoto and Tomoko protectively.  
  
Makoto's father's eyes tracked from the hand that clenched  
the strange man's fist, while Makoto's mother turned to stare at  
Makoto and Tomoko in confusion. Nearly the entirety of the abandoned  
schoolyard was filled with the bulk of another monstrous creature,  
this one made of earth, stone, and bits of metal. Its eyes gleamed  
like polished onyx, as it stared firmly at the other Dragon, one  
gargantuan wing extended to cover Makoto and her sister, guarding  
them as through they were the Dragon's horde.  
  
"That... that..." Makoto's father stuttered, his hand  
falling limp, and releasing the other man's hand as he stared at the  
massive Dragon of Earth. "That's... that's mine."  
  
"Not yours," the man corrected him, drawing back and  
massaging his hand, as his Dragon withdrew, vanishing into a cloud  
of mist and smoke, then nothing. "It is _you_."  
  
"I...." Makoto's father looked distant for a long moment,  
then shook his head. "I remember," he warned, "but don't think for a  
heartbeat that I'll ever forgive you for what you've done! I don't  
care what your plan is--"  
  
"No!" the man shouted, gesturing at Makoto's father  
urgently. A fierce wind blew, literally tearing the words from  
Makoto's father's mouth. "Anything you say will be binding by Oath,  
Kuonji Ryu, King of Coins, and Pillar of Earth," he advised. At  
Ryu's glower, he continued, "We must go and bring Summer to these  
lands. If we do not, your blood kin," he paused to nod at Makoto and  
Tomoko, "will lose themselves, and fade. And your chosen... mate...  
will, as well. We cannot live in Spring forever, with the hints of  
Winter nipping at our lives, and the existence of magic." Done with  
his speech, the wind whipping about Makoto's father suddenly  
stopped.  
  
Nodding grudgingly, he said, "I know... I know... I remember  
now." He fumed silently for a moment, glancing Makoto's mother, who  
was speechless still, her spatula hanging limply from her fingers.  
"Why the hell did you attack my family?" he yelled. "Why are you  
such a sadistic bastard?"  
  
"I am no such thing," the man assured him. "It is merely the  
most efficient path. For now, however, you have more power than I in  
the realm of moving about the Earth, because you _are_ the Earth.  
Take us to our brothers, and we can finish our assigned task, and  
complete the will of our predecessor."  
  
Grunting unhappily, Makoto's father shook his head. "Not  
until Makoto and Tomoko are put somewhere where they'll be safe," he  
growled.  
  
***  
  
[Strength]  
  
He wasn't at her side when she awoke. She knew it should  
have upset her, but at the same time, it didn't. She knew there was  
a bond between them, forged by the warmth that survived through  
twenty years and more of lying frozen....  
  
She shivered at that. So easy, now, to control the heart of  
ice. But the cost....  
  
Her own curse was the merest price to pay, and one she could  
not complain about truly. His curse was old, but in the end, without  
that curse, she wouldn't be alive. Again, it was a small price to  
pay, she thought.  
  
Rising from the bed that she had rested in throughout the  
night, though her lover was gone at the moment... she smiled,  
relishing the sensation. Even the feel of the muscles in her face  
moving. So strange, such a strange power that had brought her back  
from death and restored her flesh. Shaking her head, she gingerly  
paced across the floor, the thick carpet unable to completely  
protect her from the cold of the stone beneath.  
  
A note in a hand that was far to concise to be Ranma's  
informed her of the location of a bath for the guests of the Musk,  
and a thick robe was hanging from a hook on the back of the door.  
Taking the robe in hand, she idly wondered to herself, "Where is  
Ranma?"  
  
***  
  
[Mirror, Mirror]  
  
After a quick scrub, she let herself slip into the warmth of  
the vast, segregated bath. No mere bamboo divider, instead high  
stone piled up to separate the two halves. And the water was, thanks  
entirely to the Phoenix people, very hot.  
  
She hissed slightly, lowering herself into it, as a cold  
wind breezed through, swirling the steam upwards and allowing her a  
clear view. Except for one other, climbing into the opposite end of  
the vast bath, it was deserted.  
  
Lips quirking upward in a smile, she realized who the other  
woman would be. She slipped into the water, slowly working her way  
through the water, and enjoying the warmth.  
  
It took her only a second to utilize her power to draw on  
the threads of magic that suffused the area. Her great-grandmother  
had hated when she used her power... "Hello!" she announced  
cheerfully, jumping through a passing veil of cloud.  
  
The girl who she had surprised was not the girl she had  
thought, and she spent a moment staring, absorbing the red hair and  
strong features, before she remembered.  
  
"Kiima?" Akane asked warily, eyes wide.  
  
"No..." the woman said, shaking her head, and shifting again  
to emulate the form before her. "I suppose... 'Shampoo is copy-  
cat'," she offered, smirking.  
  
Akane stared at her, now that the woman was a mirror for  
herself, then burst out laughing, while Shampoo let her own form  
become dominant once more. "How are you, Akane?" she asked, watching  
the girl... no... woman. She was a girl in body only.  
  
Akane recovered herself, brushing her red bangs out of her  
eyes, and allowed, "I've been much worse. How have you been, Shan  
Pu?"  
  
"Ah?" she asked. "I have been worse. I was only frozen for  
hours...." She shivered, shaking her head. "It wasn't fun. What  
about you?"  
  
"I don't know," Akane admitted after a moment, eyes distant.  
"But I think that as long as Ranma is with me... I'll always be  
okay."  
  
"Good catch," Shan Pu advised. "You could have done far  
worse. I'm just glad that we got you out of there. Koara found out  
some fairly frightening things while he was investigating."  
  
"Oh?" Akane asked, narrowing her eyes worriedly.  
  
"Mmm. Ranko gave them much in trade for the rights to free  
you.... I'll not lie to you, Akane. We took a very substantial risk  
in allowing what we did. As it stands, Xinjiang may have enough  
power to destroy us."  
  
"Xinjiang?"  
  
"Where you were," she clarified. "With Ranma... perhaps with  
Ranma, if he agrees to stand with us, that risk will be lessened.  
But... I don't know."  
  
Akane's brows furrowed, and she stared fixedly into the  
water. "I... I think Ranma will help. I don't know why he  
wouldn't... he... we both owe you a lot, I think." Smiling slightly,  
she added, "And don't count me out, either!"  
  
The younger woman raised her hand to strike the surface of  
the bath to emphasize her point, a faint nimbus of blue energy  
expanding from her fist to flash brightly, rendering the entire bath  
nothing but ice. Shan Pu shook her head, warned by an unnamable  
reflex, and had seized the other woman, hauling her out before she  
struck. "Maybe," she allowed, shivering at the cold air, and  
frowning at the frozen bath not three steps away. "And maybe Ranma  
will want to teach you a little more first."  
  
Akane had the decency to blush, while Shan Pu dropped the  
other woman's hand and raised a single finger in demonstration.  
"Control is important. The Heart of Ice... you should be more  
careful, I think," she warned. "I'll find someone to melt the bath.  
For now, I think we should eat. When was your last meal?"  
  
***  
  
[Water]  
  
He flowed through the forms with a strangely surreal ease.  
He had known he was good, but then, he also used to know what he was  
doing wrong. That sensation was lost now, merely the smooth,  
flawless artistry of motion left to replace the strain and effort.  
  
How much had being without a body for so long taken from  
him? So much of his martial arts... but then, he had more than  
martial arts, should he need it, though he didn't understand it all  
yet.  
  
Sighing pensively, he threw himself into a more complex  
kata, straining to remember the details and nuances, and to try and  
get it right. His ruminations were interrupted as a presence  
intruded on his senses, and he broke from the kata, tossing his head  
to one side, as a fist passed through that same space only a  
hairsbreadth later.  
  
Not bothering to speak, he offered the other man a smile,  
and continued with the kata, simple strike throwing the overextended  
arm away, and opening Herb's guard. Herb grinned back, launching a  
kick in before he could take advantage enough to strike, and then  
the two lost themselves to a level of combat that booked no thought,  
merely action.  
  
So caught up were they in the melee, they did not notice  
until a pair of fierce calls distracted them and they both paused,  
turning to look to the courtyard, some meters below them. Akane and  
Shan Pu both stood, dressed in similar clothing, both with hands on  
hips, and both looking upward with looks of faint amusement and  
simultaneous worry.  
  
He blinked at that, while Herb drew away a short distance,  
scratching the back of his head. Then something penetrated, and he  
looked down to his lover, at Shan Pu's side.  
  
"Hey, I can't fly...." And with that realization, he  
plummeted, hurtling headlong towards the cobbled stones below.  
Akane's eyes widened with realization, and the absurdity of the  
situation sent him into a fit of laughter, as his servant -- the  
other part of _himself_ in all truth, emerged from seemingly  
nowhere. He caught himself on the Dragon's neck, swinging around and  
landing easily atop the creature's head, barely able to maintain his  
laughter at the whole affair.  
  
"Hey, Herb?" he asked, chuckling and looking upward, where  
the man floated idly, watching him curiously.  
  
"Yes, Ranma?"  
  
"How did you let me float like you did?"  
  
Herb blinked, frowning. "I don't know," he admitted. "I  
think it was because we were sparring."  
  
"Figure it out," Shan Pu grumped. "Then come back. We want  
to eat, and there's much to discuss."  
  
Herb sank to the ground, Ranma leaping to Akane's side and  
dismissing his servant. "Very well," Herb grumped.  
  
"And thaw out the bath first," Shampoo advised. "It's a bit  
frozen."  
  
***  
  
[Folly of Dreaming]  
  
"Who are you?" Shia Hai asked bitterly, not rising from her  
chair.  
  
Across the room, peering at the young woman intently, the  
young man smiled -- smiled so deeply his eyes narrowed to the point  
of nearly being closed. "You can call me Keitaro," he said. After a  
pause, he added, "Right now you should probably call me Konno,  
though. I have a lot of half-brothers."  
  
"Fey," the woman spat. "Why are you holding me here?"  
  
"Do you even know who you are?"  
  
"Of course I do! I'm Shia Hai, servant of the People."  
  
The man smirked, shaking his head, and sinking to sit at the  
floor across the small stone room. "You know that, but you don't  
really understand. Would you like me to tell you a story?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Too bad."  
  
***  
  
[Song of the Void]  
  
"Um... Ucchan," he began haltingly, smiling at his daughters  
as they stared at him in awe. "I'm afraid that I need to go... go to  
China."  
  
"Then you're taking me with you," she insisted, glaring at  
the man who called himself Ryu's brother angrily. "I don't trust him  
anyway. Why should you trust him?"  
  
Judging that it was safe, Nabiki approached from where she  
had watched the entire display, and added, "If this is about Ranko  
and... and Ranma and Akane... then I want to go, too."  
  
He frowned, and shook his head unhappily. "Where would I  
leave the children?" he asked warily.  
  
"Damnable relations," his brother grumbled, crossing his  
arms over his chest. "Have you no one who can watch over them?"  
  
"Konatsu?" Ryu asked, struggling.  
  
"If you can find him," Ukyou grumbled. "He doesn't like to  
come out into the light much anymore..."  
  
"A being of shadow and fleeting thought," Ryu's brother  
noted. "Inadequate."  
  
"Uh," Ryu grunted. "Nabiki? What about your family?"  
  
"What?" she asked, taken aback. "Oh, well... you could ask  
Kasumi, I suppose."  
  
"Okay," Ryu mumbled, smiling at his children. They blinked,  
and he used his newfound power to shift them about -- and they were  
gone.  
  
Ukyou squawked indignantly, "Ryu! Where are they?"  
  
"With Kasumi," he answered slowly, feeling his children's  
feet pattering about the backyard of the old Tendo home, delighted  
at the new trick. Kasumi's light step was not far away, hesitant and  
confused, but slowly gathering confidence as she led the children  
into the house, and then, onto a surface he couldn't sense as well.  
"They're fine," he added. "Let's go."  
  
And with that, they vanished from the street.  
  
***  
  
[Scent of Spring]  
  
When my father was a young man, his life, and indeed,  
reality began to reshape themselves. As you know, Winter is the bane  
of the Fey. But around one woman, as incidental as she was, hints of  
Spring lurked, allowing some who would not otherwise have been  
anything other than... mundane... to be more. To be Fey.  
  
There was a man who loved this woman, this key. And this  
man, after the fall, when hints of Fey became true Fey, became a  
symbol of Fey. He was the Magician. Some say that the first is not  
the Magician, but instead the Fool. Some insist that it is the other  
way about.  
  
However, the Fool is my father, and my father loved the  
Magician like his _own_ father. Someday, the Fool will outgrow his  
own foolishness, and then he'll be the Magician.  
  
But, of course, Spring came, after the Fall. And with the  
Fall, there was no longer a need for a key, a hint of the Spring to  
come, and room was needed to be made for the next key, the doorway  
to Summer. And with the loss of the key, then too was lost the  
Magician, for his life was... but that's not important at the  
moment.  
  
I will tell you this much of the woman though, Shia Hai. Her  
name meant Scent of Spring. Haruka.  
  
***  
  
[Center of the Spiral]  
  
Ukyou staggered, unsettled by the sensation of being one  
place, then suddenly shifting to another. She stared at the  
flagstones of the courtyard around her in confusion, noting Nabiki's  
equal disorientation.  
  
Ryu stared about, bearing not trace of uneasiness at the  
process, then to Ryu's self-proclaimed brother, who rose to float  
off the stones and drifted about, smiling faintly. "This will  
suffice," he remarked critically, studying the layout of the court,  
and the fountain in the center. A pair of young men and a young  
woman -- Ranko -- sat on the fountain, staring at the newcomers'  
arrival with some interest.  
  
"Ranko!" Nabiki exclaimed, rushing towards her daughter.  
"You're okay! You're okay! Why didn't you call us?"  
  
"Ack!" the woman sputtered, shoving one of the men away from  
her and embracing her mother awkwardly. "Mom! I wanted to call, but  
I couldn't -- they said that the communication lines were being  
watched by Xinjiang...."  
  
Nabiki shook her head, drawing away from her daughter, and  
offering a relieved smile. "You're okay?" she asked.  
  
Ranko nodded, looking distinctly nervous. "Just peachy,  
Mom." Glancing towards Ryu, as the young man she had pushed climbed  
to his feet, she called out, "Hey, Uncle Ryu, Auntie Ukyou! How did  
you get here?"  
  
Ukyou stared at Ryu for a moment, then turned back to Ranko,  
admitting, "I'm not sure. I think Ryu learned how to teleport  
people."  
  
Ranko's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked, surprised. "How  
neat!"  
  
"He's always known how to do that," Ryu's self-proclaimed  
bother noted dryly. "It's simply that today he's learned to stop  
fleeing his own shadow."  
  
The other young man at Ranko's side, the one dressed in the  
immaculate dress of a swordsman, drew his sword, eyeing the  
levitating man suspiciously. "What manner of man are you?" he asked  
carefully. "I sense something about you that puzzles me."  
  
"I was once called Shinnosuke," he addressed the swordsman.  
"You serve my brother, the King of Swords, not I. I am the King of  
Staves."  
  
"I serve no such man," the swordsman countered, not  
sheathing his blade.  
  
"You will," Shinnosuke informed him casually. "Earth, we  
must summon our brothers, and find the key. We have much work to be  
done."  
  
"Uh.... Can't you at least pretend to act like a normal  
human?" Ryu complained, as the swordsman unhappily sheathed his  
blade.  
  
Shinnosuke looked genuinely confounded. "Why would I care to  
do such a thing?" he asked.  
  
Ryu hung his head, sighing. "Okay," he said a moment later.  
"Who's the key?"  
  
***  
  
[Dreaming of Folly]  
  
Blinking away her confusion, Shia Hai asked, "What does that  
have to do with me?"  
  
Konno shrugged, drawing a package of cigarettes from his  
pocket. "My brothers serve, or will serve, the progeny of Shen-Lung.  
I myself, will serve the one who brings Spring to the world."  
  
Shia Hai reluctantly took a cigarette from the package,  
hands close together, afraid of touching Konno unnecessarily.  
"There's no lighter," she complained.  
  
Nonchalantly, the man drew a coin from his pocket, flipped  
it with his thumb, and when it landed in his hand, it burst into a  
tiny ball of flame. Grinning, the man presented Shia Hai with the  
handful of fire. She drew away fearfully, whimpering.  
  
Laughing, Konno asked, "Are you afraid of fire?"  
  
"No!" Shia Hai snapped. "Just magic!"  
  
"The magic will not harm you," Konno assured her, holding  
the small ball of fire out to her. "You can take it."  
  
"But... but it's not even real!"  
  
"Neither am I, and yet you address me as if I were real. And  
you can change that, as well...."  
  
Shia Hai tentatively, slowly reached out and gathered a  
small finger full of the flame. "It's warm," she said, confused, too  
stunned to remember to use it to light her cigarette.  
  
Konno smirked, asking, "Do you understand, then? Are you  
willing to bring Summer to us?"  
  
"Absolutely not!" she said, dropping the fire, to have let  
it wink out on the floor with a metallic clinking noise as it became  
a coin once more. "It would not serve the People at all."  
  
"You serve the People, Shia Hai? The Fey are people too. Are  
you going to chose to serve only some people, when the whole world  
deserves to be able to make the choice for themselves?"  
  
She shook her head, uncertain. She had known the moment she  
had entered the lands of the Fey, they had begun altering the way  
that she thought, who she was. But...  
  
But what if that was someone who she'd always been?  
  
Alone, trapped with one of the Fey, and being told that she  
was their messiah -- it was too much, and the woman spat out her  
cigarette, burying her face in her hands. "I can't! I'm not like  
you! I'm not Fey!"  
  
"But you can be," Konno countered. "And if you are, then you  
are free. Freer than you ever thought possible."  
  
***  
  
[Reunion]  
  
"Ucchan?" he asked, surprised. At the nickname, his lover  
drew him close to her, pouting, even as the man at Ukyou's side put  
an arm around her protectively. "Hey!" he exclaimed, turning to  
Akane. "Look, Ucchan came to visit us!"  
  
Ukyou giggled, shaking her head. "Ranma," she said quietly.  
"This is such a strange day... you're alive!" She sniffled, wiping a  
tear from her eyes, and unmindful of the others in the room. "I'm  
sorry, Ranma," she said quietly, bowing her head. "I... I didn't  
wait for you. I.... Ranma, this is my husband, Ryu."  
  
"Long time since I've seen you," Ranma allowed, bowing  
politely to Ryu. "You been doing okay?" Glancing at Ukyou, he  
smirked, dismissing her hurt casually as he added, "You been taking  
care of my friend, there?"  
  
Ryu blinked, obviously taken aback, then relaxed, and said,  
"I've been worse, I suppose... Ranma. I only got lost for a while.  
You... how have you been?"  
  
"Mighty cold," he chuckled, grinning. "I... Why are you  
here, anyway? And Shinnosuke?"  
  
Shinnosuke snorted derisively, shaking his head. "That I  
would be more elevated would be assumed, but must my brethren all be  
so base?" he grumbled.  
  
"What?" Ranma, Herb, and Ryu asked in tandem.  
  
"Nothing," Shinnosuke sighed. "Merely that we're wasting  
time. We are here, and thus, we should set about the task left us by  
our predecessor."  
  
"Who?" Herb asked, frowning. "I've divined long ago that  
there were four of us, and that we each embodied some trait, but I  
could never discern what bestowed that trait... nor did I know of  
you two."  
  
"Hmm," Shinnosuke mused. In an authoritative voice, he  
began, "Legend speaks to us of Shen-Lung, the great dragon that  
supports the palace of the gods in the heavens...."  
  
***  
  
[Choice]  
  
"I can choose to do nothing and let you all die, can't I?"  
Shia Hai accused. "I can just turn my back on you and let you  
perish."  
  
"You could," Konno allowed. "But even if we never thrived,  
we cannot all perish in Spring. Only in Winter. And then, we would  
return anyway. Eventually, your life will end, and then another key  
will be reborn. Chronos is on our side. The only thing you can do is  
delay what will happen."  
  
"You're bluffing," she countered.  
  
"Why would I bluff? I am your servant."  
  
"If you're my servant, then light a cigarette for me," she  
insisted, watching him carefully.  
  
He shrugged, stooping to gather the pack where she had  
dropped it, his head easily within kicking range should she try and  
lash out at him. Of course... was he trusting her, or merely  
foolish? Rising, he touched the tip of a cigarette with his finger,  
and it glowed faintly, already alight. "Here," he said, offering it  
to her.  
  
She accepted it, relaxing as she inhaled the thick smoke.  
"What if I tell you to get me out of here, to return me to  
Xinjiang?"  
  
"Then I tell you how to leave," he answered, shrugging. "I'm  
not dumb enough to go there myself. You shouldn't be, either. Koara,  
he's a damn big fool, he'll do it. Did already, I guess."  
  
"Why do I trust you?" she mumbled. "Are you working your  
magic on me?"  
  
"Only the family charm," he offered, grinning. "Dad got it  
worst, though."  
  
"I... What will I get if I do this thing? If I bring Summer?  
What if I hunt down the key to Winter after that, to finish you  
off?"  
  
"You'd be skipping Fall," he noted. "And the key to Winter  
would still be you. Just reborn, like."  
  
She sighed, hanging her head as a vague memory of a house  
she had never lived in swam through her head, followed by the  
memories of a man... a man she had known.... "You're messing with my  
head!" she accused, glaring at Konno.  
  
The man sighed, saying, "No, but this much magic is  
awakening your true nature. The four pillars are pretty close by,  
and they'll keep generating more magic as long as they're together."  
  
"So there's going to be more magic even if I don't help  
you?" she asked, wincing.  
  
"Well... yeah, I guess so."  
  
***  
  
[Compass Points]  
  
"Okay," Ranma said, shrugging. "Let's do this thing. Any  
words of wisdom, Shinnosuke? You seem to know what's going on."  
  
The man nodded, gesturing to the courtyard. "Take the places  
you know in your hearts that you're needed to go," he advised.  
  
With that, he drifted through the air on an errant breeze,  
standing at the northernmost edge of the courtyard. Ryu shrugged,  
shifting and not moving -- simply _being_ at the south edge. Ranma  
folded his arms, as Herb strode purposefully to the western edge,  
each of them standing at the outermost ring of the circular  
courtyard.  
  
All four stepped forward, stopping midway to the center,  
unsure of how to proceed, excepting Shinnosuke. He merely smiled,  
summoning his servant to him, the Dragon looming ominously overhead,  
and swiftly joined by a trio of others.  
  
Shinnosuke's Air, glowing a smoky blue, which seeped into  
the courtyard beneath him. Herb's Fire, malevolently red. Ryu's  
Earth, wisps of dark power rising slowly about it. Ranma's Water,  
cerulean and placid.  
  
The courtyard beneath them suffused a solid white, when Herb  
intoned, "I am the King of Swords, and I am Shen-Lung's left hand."  
As he spoke, the air about him suffused red, charged with a power  
and energy far greater than himself. "Keeper of the west gate."  
  
"I am the King of Coins," Ryu said next, from the south. "I  
am the feet of Shen-Lung." Dark, earthly strains of magic rose  
further about him, streaking upward in a column. The red about Herb  
rose in challenge, as Ryu finished, "Keeper of the south gate."  
  
"I am the King of Cups," Ranma returned easily. "I am Shen-  
Lung's right hand." At his words, the cerulean blue streamers rose,  
pushing the magic higher, nearly threatening the clouds themselves.  
"Keeper of the east gate."  
  
"I am the King of Staves," the final man concluded. "I am  
the wisdom of Shen-Lung." A final column, this one of bluish-green  
energy, sprang into being, twining around the others, and swirling  
them all into a tower of purest white. "Keeper of the north gate."  
  
Someone else spoke, hesitantly, from the edge of the circle  
of magics. Where, was not possible to say, for she was no closer to  
the east or west, than north or south, yet she was only at the edge  
of the circle. Her voice, wavering and unsure, said, "And I am the  
key... the key to Summer."  
  
And with those words, Summer began.  
  
***  
  
[Lazy Days of Summer]  
  
Koara lounged lazily on the hillside, pleasantly green and  
lush. The springs were below, beyond the library. He could see a few  
people scurrying about excitedly in the courtyard below -- likely  
looking for his brother's master.  
  
"So," he drawled, shooting a glance at Ranko, who sprawled  
only a short distance away, then beyond, to where Aoyama sat. "Got  
what you were expecting?"  
  
Aoyama snorted, shaking his head. "I could do worse," he  
allowed. "Herb is a fair enough man to serve."  
  
"Eh. You realize that the King of Staves and the King of  
Coins gotta deal with Maehara and Otohime, right?"  
  
"I don't know that the King of Staves would care much for a  
servant. He seems more content to flit about and call things  
'remarkable'."  
  
"Yeah. True. I wonder why, though."  
  
"I think I know," Ranko offered, staring up at a passing  
cloud.  
  
Both of the men looked at her askance.  
  
Sighing, she explained, "Ryu feels the Earth, and he was  
wounded when the Fall happened, because the radiation was hurting  
him. What happened to the air around the world when that all  
happened? I think that Shinnosuke lost it because of the pain... and  
what was left of Shen-Lung took over for him."  
  
"Could be," Koara allowed. "Could be."  
  
"Anyway," Ranko said, shaking her head and turning her  
attention to Koara. "Sorry about... um... that whole pushing thing."  
  
"What, not like you're the firs' girl ta shove me an' try  
an' hide me from 'er mom," he snickered.  
  
Aoyama snorted, shaking his head. "Yes she was," he remarked  
drolly.  
  
Ranko giggled quietly, then asked, "Koara? What... what  
happens next?"  
  
"Well," he said at length, turning to look her in the eye.  
"I guess that's all up to you, ain't it?"  
  
[END, Compass Points]  
  
-------------------------------------  
Author's Notes:  
  
Not sure it's exactly what I was going after, but this is  
the closest I could really come...  
  
Anyway. This is based off of Nanashi's 'Fey', which is based  
off the earlier chapters of 'Compass Points', which is based off of  
Nanashi's 'Soul of Ice' (Deus ex Machina) which is based off of  
Matt's 'Soul of Ice', which is based off of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma  
1/2. And something in there is based off of something that's based  
off of 'I am Become...'. No, that's not a joke. 


End file.
